Clause
155
Power
to make transitional and consequential provision
etc.
Question
proposed, That the clause stand part of the
Bill.
Mr.
O'Brien:
All I need to know from the Minister about the
power to make transitional and consequential provisions is, on line 23,
what is meant by
“savings”?
Mr.
Bradshaw:
I will have to write to the hon. Gentleman with
the specific
details.
Question
put and agreed
to.
Clause 155
ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause 15
6
ordered to stand part of the
Bill.
Clause
157
Extent
Amendment
made: No. 122, in clause 157, page 103, line 27, after
‘110,’ insert
‘(Powers and duties of Council for
Healthcare Regulatory Excellence),’.—[Mr.
Bradshaw.]
Mr.
Bradshaw:
I beg to move amendment No. 123, in
clause 157, page 103, line 27, after
‘110,’ insert
‘(Fees payable by General Medical
Council and General Optical
Council),’.
The
Chairman:
With this it will be convenient to discuss
Government new clause 7— Fees payable by General Medical
Council and General Optical
Council.
Mr.
Bradshaw:
Both provisions relate to the fee-charging
regime of the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator, which we
debated at some length earlier in the Committee. I do not intend to add
any more to the discussions that we had
then.
Mr.
O'Brien:
As the Minister said, this relates to matters
that were brought forward on the Floor of the House in a separate ways
and means debate. We had a long discussion around the fee-raising
powers of the OHPA and the associated governance and value-for-money
issues. That debate is recorded from column
357.
It is right to
point out that we remain concerned that the OHPA is not totally
independent of the Government. The Minister assured the Committee that
departmental power lies only with payment and loans made to OHPA. He
also assured us that an executive, non-departmental public
body—if OHPA is eventually classified as one of those by the
Office for National Statistics—does not have to refer any of its
judgments back to the sponsoring Department. It does not have
to
explain to the Department why it has made any professional decision, nor
does it have to give the Department details of its professional
decisions. There is total independence in the panel’s
professional decisions and Ministers will have no power to interfere in
any of its adjudication
decisions. However,
new clause 7 opens up the path for the OHPA to collect fees from the
General Optical Council and the General Medical Council—fees
that will be passed on to doctors, opticians and associated
professions. Again it is right to place on record that we remain
concerned that the Government have a power over the levy, particularly
as they have not yet clarified the likely level of the fees and the
running costs of the OHPA, although I readily acknowledge that the
Minister will seek to give us further details, hopefully in the near
future, so that we can bottom this one out. The Government have not
given sufficient guarantees protecting doctors against massive
year-on-year fee increases, in the event that the OHPA fails
financially because of Government error. I was half-inclined, on a
feet-to-the-fire basis, to propose that we should seek to divide the
Committee on the issue, but assuming that the Government are happy to
acknowledge that they are genuinely coming forward with more details
for us to consider, I am happy to allow the amendment to go forward at
this stage.
Amendment agreed
to.
Clause 157,
as amended, ordered to stand part of the
Bill.
Clause
158
Commencement
Amendment
proposed: No. 260, in clause 158,
page 104, line 17, at end
insert—
‘(aa) section
44’.—[Mr.
O'Brien.]
Question
put, That the amendment be
made:—
The
Committee divided: Ayes 6, Noes
9.
Division
No.
13
]
Question
accordingly negatived.
Clause 158 ordered to stand
part of the Bill.
Clause
159
The
appropriate authority by whom commencement order is
made
Question
proposed, That the clause stand part of the
Bill.
Mr.
O'Brien:
Had the Secretary of State adopted the amendments
that we proposed in relation to making the Secretary of State for
Health and his Department responsible for the health in pregnancy
grant, this is the point at which we would have had the need to delete
the word “Treasury”. If, when reviewing all that we have
discussed, he finds that we have made a sound point and would like to
wrest this power from the Treasury as we have been urging him to
do—frankly, all power to his elbow—this is where he would
also need an amendment.
Question put and agreed
to.
Clause 159
ordered to stand part of the
Bill.
Clause
160
Consultation
in relation to
commencement
Amendment
made: No. 178, in clause 160, page 105, line 36, at end
insert—
‘( ) Before making a
commencement order relating
to—
(a) paragraph 12A,
13(za), (a)(i) or (ab), 14A, 14B, 15, 15A, 15B, 16A, 16B, 17(b) or (c),
17A, 17B, 22A or 22B of Schedule
5,
(b) section 89 so far as
relating to those paragraphs,
or
(c) Part 1 of Schedule 15 so
far as relating to those paragraphs (or section 154 so far as relating
to that Part of that
Schedule),
the Secretary of
State must consult the Welsh
Ministers.’.—[Mr.
Bradshaw.]
Clause 160, as amended,
ordered to stand part of the
Bill.
Clauses
161 ordered to stand part of the
Bill.
3.30
pm
New
Clause
6
Powers
and duties of Council for Healthcare Regulatory
Excellence
‘In section 26 of
the 2002 Act (powers and duties of the Council: general), for
subsection (4)
substitute—
“(4)
Subsection (3) does not prevent the Council
from—
(a) taking action
under section 28,
(b) taking
action under section 29 after the regulatory body’s proceedings
have ended, or
(c)
investigating particular cases with a view to making general reports on
the performance by the regulatory body of its functions or making
general recommendations affecting future
cases.”’.—[Mr.
Bradshaw.]
Brought
up, read the First and Second time, and added to the
Bill.
New
Clause
7
Fees
payable by General Medical Council and General Optical
Council
‘(1) The Secretary of
State must with the approval of the Treasury make regulations requiring
each of the regulatory bodies to pay to the OHPA periodic fees in
respect of the discharge by the OHPA of its
functions.
(2) The regulations
must provide for the amount of the fees to be determined by the OHPA in
accordance with the regulations.
(3) The regulations must require the OHPA to
exercise its powers under the regulations with a view to ensuring that
its chargeable costs are met by fees payable under the regulations and,
accordingly, that the fees payable by each regulatory body
cover—
(a) so much of
the OHPA’s chargeable costs as are treated by the regulations as
being attributable to the OHPA’s functions under the relevant
regulatory Act, and
(b) an
apportionment between the regulatory bodies of so much of the
OHPA’s chargeable costs as are not treated by the regulations as
being attributable to the OHPA’s functions under that Act or the
other relevant regulatory
Act.
(4) For the purposes of
subsection (3), the OHPA’s “chargeable costs” are
the costs incurred by the OHPA under or for the purposes of this Act or
any other enactment, other than
costs—
(a) incurred
before such day as may be specified in the regulations,
or
(b) incurred for a purpose
specified in the
regulations.
(5) The
regulations must provide that no fee is to be payable unless the OHPA
has—
(a) notified the
regulatory bodies of its proposed determination as to the amount of the
fees payable by them,
(b)
considered any representations made by the regulatory bodies in
relation to the proposed determination,
and
(c) notified each of the
regulatory bodies of the OHPA’s determination of the amount
payable by that body (which may be more or less than the amount
proposed).
(6) The regulations
may require the OHPA to obtain the approval of the Treasury in relation
to the amount of any fee.
(7)
The regulations may—
(a)
make provision as to the times at which fees are to be
paid;
(b) enable a
determination to be varied, replaced or
revoked;
(c) provide that if
the whole or any part of a fee payable under the regulations is not
paid by the time when it is required to be paid under the regulations,
the unpaid balance from that time carries interest at the rate
determined by or in accordance with the
regulations;
(d) make provision
as to the recovery of fees.
(8)
Before making regulations under this section, the Secretary of State
must consult the regulatory bodies and such other persons as the
Secretary of State considers
appropriate.
(9) In this
section—
“regulatory
body” means the General Medical Council or the General Optical
Council;
“relevant
regulatory Act”
means—
(a) in relation
to the General Medical Council, the Medical Act 1983 (c. 54),
and
(b) in
relation to the General Optical Council, the Opticians Act 1989
(c. 44).’.—[Mr.
Bradshaw.]
Brought
up, read the First and Second time, and added to the
Bill.
New
Clause
13
Avoidance
of unreasonable burdens in exercise of regulatory
powers
‘(1) The Secretary of
State may publish guidance about steps which regulatory authorities may
take in exercising relevant powers with a view to avoiding the
imposition of unreasonable burdens on those in respect of whom the
powers are exercisable.
(2) “Regulatory authorities”
means—
(a) the
Commission, and
(b) such other
bodies as may be
prescribed.
(3) A body may not
be prescribed under subsection (2)(b) unless it has functions relating
to the provision of health or social
care.
(4) “Relevant
powers” means powers conferred by or under an enactment
to—
(a) carry out
inspections, or
(b) require the
provision of information,
but,
in relation to a body prescribed under subsection (2)(b), such powers
are “relevant powers” only so far as they are exercisable
in respect of a person in respect of whom the Commission has relevant
powers.
(5) The steps mentioned
in subsection (1) might include for
example—
(a)
co-operating with other regulatory authorities and co-ordinating the
exercise of relevant
powers,
(b) sharing information
or the results of inspections,
and
(c) seeking to obtain
information from other sources before exercising a relevant power to
require the provision of that
information.
(6) In exercising
relevant powers, regulatory authorities must have regard to any
guidance published under subsection
(1).
(7) Nothing in this
section is intended to limit the scope of a relevant power or affect a
person’s obligation to comply with a requirement imposed in the
exercise of such a power.
(8)
In this section—
(a)
“inspections” includes inspections of persons, premises
or the carrying on of
activities,
(b) a reference to
a power to carry out inspections includes a reference to any power
which is ancillary to that power (such as a power to enter premises or
to require assistance), and
(c)
a reference to a power to require the provision of information includes
a reference to a power to require the production of documents, records
or other items, a power to require the making of reports and a power to
require explanations.’.—[Mr.
Bradshaw.]
Brought
up, read the First and Second time, and added to the
Bill.
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