My Lords, Amendment 84 is intended to remove the powers of the Secretary of State, in Clause 40, to intervene in decisions on reconfigurations of health services. I said in Committee, and I say again, that those powers are very dangerous. We have recently seen how the Government’s powers to provide or withdraw funding for a proposal to, say, build a new school or improve infrastructure in a particular constituency have got them into trouble. Political considerations have trumped public interest. In the media they call that pork barrel politics—not a very complimentary phrase, I am afraid.
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All politicians know that the provision of a new hospital or clinic, or the closing of a healthcare setting or a rural school, are very sensitive considerations in elections. All parties pay close attention to such things at election time and between elections. The Prime Minister knows this—why else would he put such emphasis on the promise of 40 so-called new hospitals by 2030? He knows that it makes a good headline.
The powers of reconfiguration being sought by the Secretary of State in Clause 40 would enable this Government to change the decisions of those put in place locally, who are well qualified to make those decisions in a non-partisan and needs-based way, and thus allow the Government to wield unwarranted political power and take it from the competent people they have put in place to take those decisions. I do not trust this Government, who are currently trying to use the Elections Bill to ensure that they continue in power, to resist using these Secretary of State powers in this Bill for political purposes. It is incumbent on all parties to stop them, and to stop any future Government doing this, by removing Clause 40.