My Lords, I described at Second Reading, or at some point in a meeting with the Minister, an attempt to save Ministers from themselves. I do not understand why on earth the Government want to put this burden on them. The Government have set out an ambitious programme for reform of the NHS. Why put in a clause that guarantees that that reform will be stalled? We know that reconfigurations—most of us have experienced the issue locally, if not nationally—are very difficult. There is always local opposition, often from some leading consultants, and to get it through you have to be very determined. The noble Lord, Lord Warner is right; once Ministers can intervene at any point—for example, if an MP’s local services are threatened with an unpopular change—even in the Lords, the pressure on them to intervene can be huge.
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When I was a Minister, we were always mindful of the experience of my good friend David Lock, the MP for Kidderminster, who lost his seat in 2001 because as a government Minister—and a good egg—he loyally defended the decision to reduce the status of Kidderminster General Hospital and merge with Worcester. That was written on the heart of every MP, so when a proposal threatened them and their constituency, and frankly their seat, the first port of call was the Minister. We now have a system which has offshored this to a large extent, and I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, that it has been pretty successful.
When the Bill receives Royal Assent and becomes an Act, it will be open season on the Minister and his colleagues. On any reconfiguration where the local MP is troubled, inevitably Ministers intervene, or they use the review device. Consider the issue of children’s heart transplants and the attempt over 20 years to rationalise it, and the utter failure of that approach; that is but one example of the kind of energy that you can get the moment Ministers have powers of intervention.