Wendy Savage, Co-chair Keep Our NHS Public
Secondary legislation under Section 75 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
We apologise for the short notice about this request for action but have only learned this morning that the deadline for writing to the clerk mentioned below is Monday 25th February so please write now or over the weekend if you can. We would be grateful if you also ask others to do the same.
This Statutory Instrument (SI) will be going to the Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee on 5th March; this Committee will then report to the House. If people contact the Clerk of the Committee to emphasise its importance it will encourage them to look seriously at the Secondary Legislation and then hopefully report it to the House as meriting special attention. This in turn helps the tone of the debate on the SI. The Clerk can be contacted at
seclegscrutiny@parliament.uk .
Caroline Molloy and Lucy Reynolds have prepared a parliamentary briefing for KONP which has been checked by Allyson Pollock but in essence these regulations will lock the NHS into the market and subject to EU competition law.
Statutory Instruments can be positive (includes debate) or negative (becomes law without debate). This regulation is using the negative procedure which means it usually goes through on the nod so we have to get enough public debate and support in parliament to get them debated and if possible withdrawn or significantly amended. This has not been done for 10 years in the Lords or 30 years in Commons but it is the last chance to affect the implementation of the infamous Health and Social Care Act 2012.
Please find attached a template letter which you can adapt as you wish. We sincerely hope the SI will be debated by the whole House of Lords as it is of such crucial importance.
Very best wishes and thank you for your support,
To seclegscrutiny@parliament.uk
cc <campaignmanager@keepournhspublic.com>
Secondary legislation under Section 75 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
I notice that the Lords’ Secondary Legislation Committee will be discussing the regulations laid by the Government under Section 75 of the new NHS Act 1 at their meeting on 5 March.
I should like to draw to your attention the radical nature of these regulations. During the passage of the Health & Social Care Act through Parliament ministers constantly uttered soothing remarks to the effect that there was no possibility of NHS services being forced to be put to the market, and that the health regulator Monitor would not have powers to enforce such a move. It followed that the NHS would not therefore be subject to EU competition law, and therefore no irrevocable change in its status was being made.
However, an examination of the new regulations reveals that local commissioners, the new Clinical Commissioning Groups, will have no power to resist Monitor’s demands, will be less able to introduce quality criteria, in addition to cost criteria, into the contracts they are required to let, and will have less opportunity to consult local people about their plans.
Since this is in direct contravention of what was said to Parliament, I hope you will be able to ensure their Lordships know that these regulations merit special attention so they do not just slip through on the nod.
Yours faithfully,
1The National Health Service (Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition) Regulations 2013) made under Section 75 of the Health & Social Care Act 2012)[1]
Keep Our NHS Public
19, Vincent Terrace, London N1 8HN
020 7837 7635
www.keepournhspublic.com
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Thank you so very much for doing this important work on all of our behalves. I will be writing to to the committee today.
The population of this country should be getting off their complacent backsides and taking to the streets in very loud protest at this wicked theft of our NHS by greedy, profiteering tories and their lapdogs the libs.
They should.And it seems such an emotional issue,but it seems that people only react when their services are threatened.It is almost like people have been defeated without any battle being lost or won.As this obscenity has got up and running,the silence has been deafening.The media silence has been shameful,but not as shameful as labour’s[except Burnham]shameful silence.It’s impossible to understand.I among many have wondered why people have taken to the streets in huge numbers.
The corruption of private health donors,the corruption of mps/lords with financial interests in healthcare business and still being allowed to vote on the bill.Not a word from the press or from politicians.It has been disgraceful.
It seems now that neither the media/press nor politicians give a damn.
I made out this list of considerations :
Until the reality of how this Act was put in place:
1.against popular and professional/expert protest.
2.The fact that the tory party received £20 million in donations from private healthcare providers.
http://eoin-clarke.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/744-donations-worth-20-million-from.html
3.The fact that significant numbers of mps/lords[200] had financial interests in private healthcare providers.
http://socialinvestigations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/nhs-privatisation-compilation-of.htm
4.The ubiquitous input of Mckinsey and Company into the creation of the Bill.The same Mckinsey and Company who represent major private healthcare providers.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099940/NHS-health-reforms-Extent-McKinsey-Companys-role-Andrew-Lansleys-proposals.html?fb_action_ids=458424647549341&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582
5.The presentation of the Bill in parliament and Lords,regarded as being almost unreadable.
6.The reluctance to release the risk report on it’s implimentation.
7.The reluctance and aloofness of the government to engage with public concern.
8.The arguments underpinning the need for this Bill are flawed and have been lost.
9.The mushrooming of private sector bidding for contracts,synonomous with it’s suspected function as a privatising mechanism.
10.The extraction of £2billion from the NHS operating Budget at a time of extreme financial austerity for it’s implimentation.[Something seriously wrong with that one]
11.The requirement for GPs to spend significant amount of time setting it up,in commissioning groups,where they maybe wont have the expertise or want it,opening it up to private sector bids[economic],or else time away from patients.
12.The huge budgets involved the room for abuse,and weak regulation.
12 The fragmentation of services
These factors and maybe more,couch the H&SC Bill/Act in such a dubious light,with strong suspicions of it being a vehicle for the private sector to marketise and capture the UK public health sector,and not much to do with improving the NHS or the health of the population.
Secondary legislation under Section 75 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
I notice that the Lords’ Secondary Legislation Committee will be discussing the regulations laid by the Government under Section 75 of the new NHS Act 1 at their meeting on 5 March.
I should like to draw to your attention the radical nature of these regulations. During the passage of the Health & Social Care Act through Parliament ministers constantly uttered soothing remarks to the effect that there was no possibility of NHS services being forced to be put to the market, and that the health regulator Monitor would not have powers to enforce such a move. It followed that the NHS would not therefore be subject to EU competition law, and therefore no irrevocable change in its status was being made.
However, an examination of the new regulations reveals that local commissioners, the new Clinical Commissioning Groups, will have no power to resist Monitor’s demands, will be less able to introduce quality criteria, in addition to cost criteria, into the contracts they are required to let, and will have less opportunity to consult local people about their plans.
Since this is in direct contravention of what was said to Parliament, I hope you will be able to ensure their Lordships know that these regulations merit special attention so they do not just slip through on the nod.
Yours faithfully,
D Law
the government have no mandate to privatise the NHS, that should be up to the british people not a government that was never elected by a majority and only represents a minority of self interested people
I too think that the government are making a huge mistake with the NHS if they took away all the chiefs and left one chief with the Indians like years ago it would not be in the state it is.Example a matron and her staff instead of employing people who have no idea what each department of the NHS service does.Leave the NHS alone
I have today emailed as requested. I will share it on my Facebook timeline too. I am ashamed that many people are so apathetic about what is happening to the NHS. Sadly, it would seem they are going to wake up too late to save it from the clutches of the private sector and all that will ultimately mean to the patient. But I’ll keep campaigning till the end.
email sent and contacted, mp too, who was very clear throughout the bill that they were not privatising nhs. hes a tory but strangely enough ive not heard from him since i sent this latest email, maybe even they are beginning to realise what it means.
i think we need ot put pressure on the libdems as they shored the whole thing up in the first place thinking they would get the reform of the house of lords.
people are beginning to wake up as groups of us have still been demonstrating and leafletting throughout the country in our areas, so we are making a difference. hopefully it wont be too late.
but ill keep going even if the privatise it, ill still continue until its back as the NHS
Revolution in the Field of Politics is the Answer
We Need British People to Stop being Gormless Zombies and Demand
a Massive Political Improvement
Redistribution of Wealth from Rich to Poor and Rebuilding of Public
Services
Welfare Not MPS Expenses