Health and Social Care Bill: Report stage day six
8 March 2012
Scheduled as the penultimate and sixth day of report stage the House of Lords continues further line by line examination of the Health and Social Care Bill today (Thursday 8 March).
Lords will consider amendments to the governance and management of NHS Foundation Trusts and NHS Trusts.
They will also discuss public involvement in Healthwatch England and local Healthwatch organisations.
Amendment 223A suggests Healthwatch England's primary duty 'shall be to represent the interests of patients and users of the national health services and social care services' and be completely independent of any health or social care provider or regulator.
- Watch live on Parliament TV from 11.30am
- Read the Today's Lords Hansard transcript from 2.30pm
- Sixth Marshalled list of amendments
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 five
- Report stage: Day four
- Urgent question asked in the House of Commons
- Report stage: Day three
- Report stage: Day two
- 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.