My Lords, I hope to be even shorter with this piece of legislation. The Health and Social Care (Northern Ireland) Act was passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly earlier this year and received Royal Assent on 7 February 2022. The Act provided for the dissolution of the regional Health and Social Care Board and the transfer of its functions to the five Northern Ireland health and social care trusts.
A number of UK Parliament and Scottish Parliament Acts reference the now dissolved regional Health and Social Care Board, where amending those references would be outside the legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Secondary legislation is therefore required to make consequential amendments to update references to the regional Health and Social Care Board so that the
“Northern Ireland Department of Health or health and social care trusts”
are referenced instead. This technical order seeks to update these references.
Although the order is primarily for administrative purposes, I would like to give a bit of background on the Health and Social Care (Northern Ireland) Act. All noble Lords will be aware that health is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland. The primary purpose of the Act was to implement recommendations made following a number of independent reviews and reports that had been commissioned over a number of years, from Donaldson to Bengoa, which found the current health system to be “overly bureaucratic and complex”. Those recommendations included the dissolution of the regional Health and Social Care Board and the transfer of its functions to the five Northern Ireland health and social care trusts.
As I said, the Act to give effect to this received Royal Assent on 7 February 2022, after which the Northern Ireland Health Minister, Robin Swann, requested that my department take forward secondary legislation to make consequential amendments to UK Parliament and Scottish Parliament Acts where the regional Health and Social Care Board is referenced.
Since then, officials have worked closely with colleagues across a range of UK government departments and with legal colleagues to identify the list of Acts where the now dissolved board is referenced, of which there are a total of 25. Twenty-three of those are UK Parliament Acts and two are Scottish Parliament Acts.
As I said, the order before your Lordships simply seeks to update references to the now dissolved body. There are no policy implications whatever; it is just a technical updating which the Government are taking forward. I beg to move.
4.15 pm