Speeches by Smyth.

“Abolition of arrangements with Local Healthwatch organisations”

“To ensure that these new arrangements are a success, effective oversight and transparency will be critical. That is already a key consideration in establishing the patient experience directorate, and the Bill includes additional key safeguards. First, integrated care boards will be required to publish an annual stateme…”

“Currently, local authorities are responsible for commissioning local healthwatches and deciding how best to deploy resources locally. This means that setting a fixed national funding level in legislation would not guarantee an increase in what the local healthwatch ultimately receives. It would remain up to local autho…”

“At a national level, as part of the regulatory function of local authority adult social care commissioning, the CQC will also look at whether the statutory functions of local authorities are being met. Additionally, the Secretary of State will have a new power to direct ICBs on the exercise of their functions if that i…”

“Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.”

“On resuming—”

“Clause 65 and schedule 10 will abolish the current local healthwatch arrangements and place responsibility for gathering the views of local people firmly with the bodies with the clearest levers to act: integrated care boards and local authorities. At present, many organisations are gathering views, running engagement …”

“I remind hon. Members that there is no shortage of independent outside scrutiny of Government and the NHS, from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to the Patient Safety Commissioner, now sitting within the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, along with a wide number of voluntary, community …”

“The Department provides approximately £3.3 million in funding each year to Healthwatch England, as a statutory committee of CQC, and we will continue to fund Healthwatch England as long it stays in place. For those reasons, I ask the hon. Member for North Shropshire not to press her new clause 78.”

“My hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket spoke to new clause 74, which was tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Rugby. That new clause raises some important issues around transparency, which I am passionate about and have often spoken about. The new patient experience directorate within the refor…”

“The existing complaints regulations allow people to make a formal complaint to providers of services or to a commissioner of services, and ultimately to the appropriate ombudsman. Healthwatch has no statutory role in relation to complaints, so the abolition of Healthwatch services will therefore not affect the complain…”

“Finally, following its passage, we will undertake an evaluation of the Bill to provide objective and robust evidence for both learning and accountability. The learning element will feed directly into the development of services and the creation of an evidence base, and the accountability element will support further de…”

“Clause 64 ordered to stand part of the Bill.”

“Schedule 9 agreed to.”

“I thank the hon. Lady for her comments. The purpose of the new clauses is to support our life sciences and medicine sector, in order to make that more streamlined. She will be aware of the proposals about the negative and affirmative procedure. If there were particular issues of scrutiny, normal parliamentary rules and…”

“Again, we have had an important discussion, particularly around the issue of independence; I accept that it is difficult and that there are arguments on both sides. We have heard a lot about Professor Croisdale-Appleby’s evidence on behalf of Healthwatch. I made this argument on Second Reading: we have had this arrange…”

“I am grateful to hon. Members for tabling these new clauses. I recognise the concerns behind them. Contracts involving NHS data, digital services and technology must be subject to proper scrutiny. Patients expect their medical information to be protected, and NHS staff expect the systems that they use to be safe and re…”

“I am sorry, but I did not get the end of that sentence. However, I think the hon. Lady was saying that the Bill essentially abolishes NHS England. Again, as I have said repeatedly, nobody is opposing that. As is well known, the recommendations on the maternity commissioner have come through a separate process. Given th…”

“I will begin with Government new clauses 91 to 95. Many hon. Members will know that the current regulatory framework for medicines and medical devices is seen as overly complicated and difficult to navigate. It is also slow and burdensome to amend, limiting our ability to ensure that it keeps pace with developments. Ma…”

“Taken together, the clause and schedule provide for the abolition of Healthwatch England, which is a step that we are not taking lightly. I want to pay tribute to everybody involved in this work. In some areas, Healthwatch has played a really important role in amplifying the experiences of patients, families and carers…”