Public Bill Committee: Health Bill - CCN Submission

We have submitted evidence to the Public Bill Committee, which is currently examining the draft Health Bill.

The Bill provides the legal basis for reorganising the NHS. This includes abolishing NHS England, expanding the Secretary of State’s powers, and changing the role and duties of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs).

The primary focus of our evidence is clause 21 which proposes removing mandatory local authority representation on ICBs and replacing it with a member nominated by the mayor of each mayoral strategic authority.

We argue that this is not equivalent and provide evidence that a mandated seat for local authority representation is necessary to ensure the success of ICBs’ strategic commissioning function, the ability of local authorities to discharge their own duties, and the success of the neighbourhood health agenda.

We do not believe it is possible to mitigate the negative impacts of clause 21. In our submisison, we therefore ask the UK Government to table an amendment that would require ICBs to have a member jointly nominated by local authorities from within the board’s area, as is currently the case but would otherwise be removed by clause 21.

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