Health and Social Care Bill: Report stage day two
14 February 2012
The House of Lords continued detailed line by line examination of the Health and Social Care Bill yesterday (Monday 13 February) and voted on two amendments
The House of Lords voted twice on two consecutive amendments looking at 'openess' to patients and the Secretary of State's role in managing the NHS.
Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench) moved Amendment 17, inserting the new clause about 'The Secretary of State’s duty to ensure openness and transparency with patients when things go wrong'. The House voted on the amendment, which was not agreed, with a split of 198 content (for) and 234 not content (against) the amendment.
The House also voted on Amendment 18 moved by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour). He suggested a new clause covering 'The Secretary of State’s duty as to preventing bureaucracy'. Lord Hunt did not win the vote, with 169 members 'for' and 231 'against' the move.
Health and Social Care Bill: Key areas
- 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.
Catch up on the Health and Social Care Bill so far
- Report stage: day one
- Latest version of the bill at the end of Committee stage (22 December 2011)
- Committee Stage Lords news round up
- Progress of the Health and Social Care Bill
The House of Lords Constitution Committee report
The Constitution Committee published a follow-up report calling for changes to the Health and Social Care Bill to ensure that ministerial responsibility to Parliament and legal accountability for the NHS are not diluted.
What is the report stage?
Report stage in the chamber gives all members of the Lords further opportunity to consider all amendments (proposals for change) to a bill. It usually starts at least 14 days after committee stage. It can be spread over several days (but usually fewer days than at committee stage).
Before report stage takes place
- The day before report stage starts, amendments are published in a Marshalled List – in which all the amendments are placed in order.
- On the day, amendments on related subjects are grouped together and a list (“groupings of amendments”) is published.
What happens at report stage?
- Detailed line by line examination of the bill continues.
- Votes can take place and any member can take part.
After report stage - third reading
- If the bill is amended it is reprinted to include all the agreed amendments.
- The bill moves to third reading for the final chance for the Lords to debate and amend the bill.
- More about third reading.
Further information
Detailed line by line examination of the separate parts (clauses and schedules) of a bill takes place during report stage.
Find out more about watching House of Lords debates.