My Lords, the Minister will probably get the “Just a Minute” prize for the evening. I will not try to reply to all the amendments, purely those tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, to which I have spoken. However, if ever I saw candidates for return on Report, they are those in this part of the Bill, in all respects that have been spoken to this evening. This is an extremely unsatisfactory part of the Bill, which gives far too much power to the Secretary of State.
However, I thank the Minister for his response. He looked rather baffled when I spoke to Amendments 227 and 228—perhaps because Dr Wade-Gery, who is its chair, unaccountably suggested that she did not really understand the dual function of NHS Digital. It is rather extraordinary. It is a dual function; neither I nor the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, have any quarrel with the transfer of digital capabilities to NHS England—it is the safe haven aspects, a really important second function of NHS Digital, that we object to. In moving all the data across to NHS England, it will no longer have the independence and objectivity of NHS Digital. It is a really backwards step in data governance.
We can have the digital transformation and data-analytical capabilities within NHS England, but I fear we will not have the same safeguarding of the actual data that we have at the moment. Even that is not satisfactory, as the Minister has heard this evening. That said, we will no doubt return to that in conversation and I beg leave to withdraw Amendment 227.