Health and Social Care Bill — Re-committal — 21 Jun 2011 at 18:30

The majority of MPs voted for the re-committal of the Health and Social Care Bill to its Public Bill Committee; restarting its consideration by Parliament and allowing it to continue its path towards becoming law.

On the 4th of April 2011 Andrew Lansley MP (The Secretary of State for Health; South Cambridgeshire, Conservative) had announced to the House of Commons:

• "we propose to take the opportunity of a natural break in the passage of the Bill to pause, listen and engage with all those who want the NHS to succeed, and subsequently to bring forward amendments to improve the plans further in the normal way.

This vote was on re-starting the consideration of the Bill following the pause; and agreeing a timetable for its progress through the House of Commons.

Parliament has summarised the key areas of the Bill^[1] as being it:

• establishes an independent NHS Board to allocate resources and provide commissioning guidance
• increases GPs’ powers to commission services on behalf of their patients
• strengthens the role of the Care Quality Commission
• develops Monitor, the body that currently regulates NHS foundation trusts, into an economic regulator to oversee aspects of access and competition in the NHS
• cuts the number of health bodies to help meet the Government's commitment to cut NHS administration costs by a third, including abolishing Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities.

The motion in question is akin to a timetabling motion in that it is hard to ascribe a position for or against the substantive content of the Bill to those voting either way in the division.

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• [1] Andrew Lansley MP (South Cambridgeshire, Conservative), House of Commons, 4 April 2011
• [2] Parliament's webpage on the Health and Social Care Bill (Now the Health and Social Care Act 2012)

Debate in Parliament | Source |