HL Deb 16 January 1990 vol 514 cc593-5

7.53 p.m.

Lord Skelmersdale rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 12th December be approved.

The noble Lord said: The purpose of this order is to provide the Department of Health and Social Services with powers to set up special agencies in Northern Ireland. Comparable provisions already exist in the National Health Service Act 1977 which allow the Secretary of State for Health and the Secretary of State for Wales to set up special health authorities to perform such functions as they may direct. No equivalent legislation is available in Northern Ireland and the order I am asking the House to approve today will bring the Province into line with England and Wales.

The main provisions of the order have the same effect as those in the 1977 Act. They provide for the establishment of special health and social services agencies using subordinate legislation orders subject to negative resolution. They also give the department power to direct special agencies to carry out specified functions. In addition, the order applies to special agencies the general provisions applied to boards by the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 which is the principal legislation governing the health services in Northern Ireland.

Your Lordships will I am sure be interested to know that the first purpose for which the new order will be used is the establishment of a health promotion agency. Until the Health Education Council was disbanded in 1987 it provided health education and promotion support services —such as materials and training—for Northern Ireland as well as England and Wales. In that year the council was replaced by two new special health authorities; the Health Education Authority, in England, and the Welsh Health Promotion Authority. Both were set up using powers contained in Section 11 of the National Health Service Act 1977 to which I have already referred. In the absence of comparable powers in Northern Ireland, a health promotion unit was set up under the auspices of the department. This interim measure has ensured that a service has continued to be provided pending the establishment of a Northern Ireland health promotion agency as an independent statutory body.

With their strong commitment to health education and promotion, the Government consider that a statutory body is needed to provide the impetus required in this important field. The scale of our commitment has been demonstrated by my recent announcement of an increase in the Northern Ireland health promotion budget for 1990–91 by more than 60 per cent. to some £900,000. This amount will be available to support the programmes of the new agency covering important topics like stopping young people from taking up smoking, preventing alcohol misuse, improving nutrition and encouraging greater exercise participation.

As I have explained to the House, the order will create powers similar to those already in force in England and Wales under the National Health Service Act 1977. It will put Northern Ireland on a par with those countries. I commend the order.

Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 12th December be approved. —(Lord Skelmersdale.)

Lord Prys-Davies

My Lords, I thank the Minister for explaining as briefly as he has the terms of this order. We on this side of the House very much welcome the order. We would do well to remind ourselves that there are circumstances where a special statutory agency can play an important role in improving health care. We have seen in England and Wales how such an authority can stimulate interest in the problem, promote co-operation between professionals and statutory authorities, and of course help to mould public opinion.

I should be grateful if the Minister would deal with three brief points. First, will the Minister assure the House that the members of staff to be employed by the special agency will not be transferred to the agency without their full consent? Secondly, is it intended that the special agency will publish an annual report, and that it will be available to members of the public? I assume that such a report will be published and that that is probably covered by one of the 'read-over' provisions of the order. Thirdly, will there be a separate governing body for each agency? If so, will it have a lay membership and will its chairman be a lay person?

We fully support this order. I thank the Minister for the way he introduced it and we hope the new agency, when it is set up, will be successful.

Lord Skelmersdale

I am extremely grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Prys-Davies, and I should like to underline what I said earlier, that the health promotion agency is the only special agency planned at present. If I have any other plans, I shall naturally come before your Lordships to discuss them in due course; but, as I say, I have none at present.

The health promotion agency, as the noble Lord readily agreed, has a very important job to do. That is one of the reasons why it is better to function totally independent of government. Lay members will be appointed, and they will be totally independent of both the department and government. Equally, there will be no compulsory transfer of staff without their full consent.

As regards annual reports, there is no statutory requirement to produce them; but there is a requirement to produce an annual operational plan on which there will have to be wide consultation. In taking account of the next operational plan, there will have to be a review of the last one in order to see what has been achieved. Therefore, there is no hole-in-the-corner activity planned in this respect.

The agency will take account of the health promotion needs identified in the annual reports from the directors of public health of each board and from the department's chief medical officer. They are germane to the agency's thinking and promotional activities. The chairman of the agency will be a lay person in the same way as many of the members. I believe that covers all the noble Lord's questions, and with the very welcome and complete agreement between myself and the noble Lord, I commend this order to the House.

On Question, Motion agreed to.

Viscount Long

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do now adjourn during pleasure until 8.35 p.m.

Moved accordingly, and, on Question, Motion agreed to.

[The Sitting was suspended from 8.1 to 8.35 p.m.]