My Lords, the 2012 Act removed certain powers from the Secretary of State, and Jeremy Hunt, the former and longest-serving Secretary of State, says that he never felt the lack of them. He had all the levers he needed to carry out his role of ensuring that the mandate and the five-year forward view were carried out and responsible to Parliament. However, Part 3 of the Bill puts a whole lot back—and more. These powers appear all over the Bill but particularly in Part 3, and we have spent the last five weeks pushing back against most of them.
There is a real danger that, if the Secretary of State were to use these powers, it could threaten the stability, proper management and operational independence of key parts of the NHS. The Constitution Committee raised serious concerns about the range of Secretary of State powers and concluded that the new powers
“could alter the balance between the Government’s constitutional responsibility for the provision of health care and providers’ ability to … respond effectively to local needs.”
I make no apology for the fact that I have quoted this section of the committee’s report before. It applies to so much of the “We know best” power grab that it bears repeating.
If the Minister wishes to abolish, change or transfer functions between arm’s-length bodies to this extent, it should be scrutinised by Parliament. Should it be necessary and appropriate in the future to make these changes, the Secretary of State should find another piece of primary legislation in which to do it. But to take these overreaching powers with no indication of how they will be used—or why—is going too far.