My Lords, I thank everybody who has taken part in this debate, particularly my noble friend the Minister for the work he and his officials have done to bring this into the Government’s remit. That is so important, because I learned through the passage of the Medicines and Medical Devices Act that we could incorporate the patient safety commissioner and some of the other things we wanted to achieve only through government amendments. My heart leaped when I saw these amendments and I thank the Minister.
I still think these amendments could be improved and it is important that we get the word “shall” in, or “might” or whatever others have said, rather than “may”. I was looking at the Oxford English Dictionary. My father-in-law was the publisher to the Oxford University Press, so the dictionary is very close to my heart. The dictionary says that the verb “shall” relates to the right or sensible thing to do, whereas the verb “may” is defined as a possibility.
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I have absolutely no doubt that the Minister will do all he can to ensure that the Secretary of State brings this into effect, but he will know, as all of us in this Chamber know, that Secretaries of State come and go. You are always starting from base again with a new Secretary of State, so there is an urgency about this.
Before I bring this to a close, I want to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton. She is always so much on the ball and so concise and straight. The noble Lord, Lord Howarth, is so right that it is other, huge organisations that influence what is happening. There is the tobacco industry, which he mentioned, the food industry, and we saw the devices industry, which so influenced what is happening. I thank the other Members who took part, including the noble Lord, Lord Patel, with his second intervention, and the ABPI for its work.
I say to the noble Lord, Lord Stevens of Birmingham that of course he is right; we need to reach much more widely. But I have found throughout the Bill and previous Bills, where we have enacted them, that you have to start somewhere, and we felt that this was a credible way to start, and something to build on at least. But he is right; it should go wider.
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, so much for supporting this amendment. She is absolutely right in what she has been saying. Research is so important, and that is all part of this. We are not trying to cut down research. We just want to see where the money is going, and we want patients to know how things are being influenced regarding the finances being poured into certain organisations. I mentioned the big hospitals, the teaching hospitals and so on. We have a right to know, us taxpayers and us patients, where the money is coming from. That is all I wish to say. I withdraw the amendment.