ENGLISH HEALTH AUTHORITIES: CHANGE OF NAME (Hansard, 22 May 2002)

§ Mr. Hutton
I beg to move, That this House agrees with the Lords in the said amendment.

§ Madam Deputy Speaker (Sylvia Heal)
With this we may discuss Lords amendment No. 3.

§ Mr. Hutton
Members will recall that on Report I tried to deal with the concerns of those on both sides of the 315 House by tabling an amendment seeking to provide for consultation before name changes, boundary changes and mergers of strategic health authorities could take place.
I am very grateful to Baroness Thomas of Walliswood for helpfully recommending in Committee in another place on 14 March that the Government could usefully reconsider the wording proposed for the new section 8(5) of the National Health Service Act 1977 Act contained in clause 1 of the Bill. My noble Friend Lord Hunt of Kings Heath promised at the time to look at the wording again, and I am pleased to say that on reflection we were able to bring a revised and shortened version of subsection (5) before their Lordships.
The wording as now drafted follows the precedent set for NHS trusts in section 5(2) of the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990, as substituted by the Health Authorities Act 1995. The term "prescribed" is defined in section 128 of the 1977 Act as meaning prescribed in regulations made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State.
Let me make it clear that the previous version was not wrong. It would have achieved exactly the same in policy terms as this amendment. However, as we considered the issue further during the passage of the Bill, it became clear that what we wanted to do could be drafted more simply. We accordingly took the opportunity of making what I hope will be regarded on both sides as an improvement to the Bill. However, it does not change the substance.
Amendment No. 3 tidies up a minor drafting error in a definition in clause 5 to make it clear that for the purposes of this section a section 28C dental practitioner means a dentist who performs personal dental services in the area of the primary care trust. The amendment simply ensures that the wording in clause 5 is exactly the same for medical and dental practitioners. I am afraid that the words in the area of the Primary Care Trust had been mistakenly omitted from the earlier draft of the Bill.

§ Mr. Oliver Heald (North-East Hertfordshire)
Let me start by saying as I did on a previous occasion that it is welcome that the Minister has accepted that there should be consultation on the orders about the establishment, variation, the name or the abolition of a strategic health authority. In supporting our amendment on Report, some Labour Members, including the hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) said that it was necessary to have proper consultation.
We had a concern, however, about the wording, if the Minister should make such regulations as provided for in the previous amendment that the Minister put forward on Report. Earl Howe, speaking for the Opposition in the other place, made that point. It is good that the Government have responded to the points that we made in Committee and on Report and have come up with what is, without doubt, a neater form of wording. I entirely agree with the Minister that amendment No. 3 is purely technical. We welcome these amendments.