Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Bill

I am not an expert in this area, but I am puzzled. If it is that difficult to identify, how come the Times managed it in its expose? It did not seem very difficult or complex. The Times found drugs that had come out of patent and were available on a generic basis and for which the company that bought the patent increased the cost by staggering amounts. You do not have to be Sherlock Holmes to alight upon that. I do not know which way to go on this debate. My noble friend worries about fishing expeditions, and he is right, but I am even more worried about the NHS being ripped off for inordinate amounts of money by people whose corporate responsibility polices omit the word “ethics”. I asked once before why none of the current audit processes inside the health service exposed this until the Times brought it to public attention. There may be a mass of information, but I would have thought that these things could quite easily be identified. I may be wrong because, as I said, I am not an expert in this very complex area, but those points need to be answered. The problem was identified. We have this Bill because we know that the current system is not working. Even though people in the various systems in the NHS were reporting their concerns, no action was taken for quite a long time. It certainly justifies the legislation. The Delegated Powers Committee expressed its concerns about whether the legislation is right, and I do not profess to be qualified to rule on that, but my major concern is about the ability of some companies to rip off the NHS.