Health and Social Care Bill

My Lords, I beg to move Amendment 190 and speak to Amendments 193, 194, 195, 299 and 300. We have tabled Amendments 190, 299 and 300 to comply with the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee's recommendations. These sought to ensure that key elements of the licensing arrangements are subject to appropriate levels of parliamentary scrutiny. In line with that, Amendments 190 and 300 provide that the Secretary of State's approval of Monitor's licensing criteria will always be made by order, and the first such order must be subject to the affirmative procedure. Subsequent orders, in the event of Monitor wishing to revise the criteria, would be subject to the negative procedure. Similarly, Amendment 299 provides for the first set of exemption regulations made by the Secretary of State under Clause 84 to be subject to the affirmative procedure. I turn now to Amendments 193, 194 and 195, which deal with the hugely important issue of integration of services. There is a clear consensus around the importance of further integration and more services joined up around patients' needs. The Bill seeks to encourage and enable the delivery of integrated services. All NHS bodies and private and third-sector providers supplying NHS services are required by the Health Act 2009 to take account of the NHS constitution in their decisions and actions. This includes the principle that the NHS works across organisational boundaries and in partnership with other organisations in the interests of patients, local communities and the wider population. The Bill takes this further by making it clear that in exercising any of their functions, commissioners must act with a view to securing continuous improvement in outcomes, including effectiveness, safety and quality of patient experience. Commissioners must also exercise their functions with a view to securing that health services are provided in an integrated way, where this would improve the quality of those services, including outcomes, and/or reduce inequalities in relation to access to services and outcomes. The intention is, therefore, that it would be for commissioners to drive integration and co-operation between providers in the light of local circumstances and needs, and to enforce this through legally binding contracts. Monitor would have an important role to play in supporting commissioners by enabling integration of services. That is why Clause 61 expressly requires Monitor to exercise its functions with a view to enabling integration. Nevertheless, in Committee the House raised further concerns around the extent of Monitor's role in enabling integration and co-operation. We listened carefully to those concerns, and ultimately agreed that there was more that we could do. We have tabled Amendments 193, 194 and 195 in order to establish express power for Monitor to set and enforce licence conditions for the purposes of enabling integration, and enabling co-operation between healthcare providers where it would improve the quality or efficiency of NHS healthcare services, or reduce inequalities. Licence conditions could therefore be used to support commissioners in promoting integration and co-operation. This would also allow for licence conditions to fully cover the relevant principles and rules of the current Principles and Rules for Competition and Co-operation. I hope that these amendments will reassure your Lordships that we have significantly strengthened Monitor's capability in relation to integration. Not only will enabling integration be part of its general duties but it will now be able to set and enforce licence conditions specifically for that purpose. I beg to move.