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Health Act 2009

  • Last modified date:
    25 November 2009
  • Gateway reference:
    11194, 12676

On the 12 November the Health Bill received Royal Assent and became the Health Act 2009. The Health Act 2009 and the accompanying Explanatory Notes will be available soon on the website of the Office of Public Sector Information.

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What's new

12 November 2009: The Health Act 2009 receives Royal Assent

De-authorisation of NHS foundation trusts

Amendments relating to the de-authorisation of NHS foundation trusts were introduced to the Bill by the House of Commons on 12 October 2009. The amendments followed a Government consultation:

The following factsheet was prepared for members of the House of Lords prior to their consideration of the amendments:

Private patient income of NHS mental health foundation trusts

Amendments relating to the private patient income of NHS mental health foundation trusts were introduced to the Bill by the House of Commons on 12 October 2009. This relates to a review of the 'private patient income cap' for all NHS foundation trusts. More information on the review is available in the following letter from Mike O'Brien QC MP, Minister of State for Health.

Presentations on tobacco control - MPs' meeting on 12 October 2009

A meeting, open to all MPs, is being held in Parliament on 12 October 2009 to discuss the provisions in the Health Bill that remove tobacco displays.  Available below are the presentations to be given at that meeting by Professor Gerard Hastings and Eamonn Rossi.

What does the Health Bill 2009 do?

Summary: fact sheet on the Health Bill
The Department produced a factsheet for Peers that provides background information and a description of the policies contained in the Bill.

Part 1 – Improving the quality of NHS Care

Establishing a framework for the NHS Constitution

The Bill places a duty on all providers of NHS services to have regard to the NHS Constitution, to be published shortly.  The NHS Constitution will secure the enduring principles of the NHS, setting out the rights and responsibilities of patients and staff.

The Bill also sets out the structure for reviewing the NHS Constitution and accompanying handbook.

Creating new Quality Accounts

The Bill will drive up the quality of health services through a duty on providers of NHS healthcare to produce new Quality Accounts.

The Quality Accounts will contain information on quality for the benefit of patients, clinicians and managers, and will be used to inform local accountability for services, and to assist clinicians, commissioners and patients in driving improvements.

Quality Accounts: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS)
These FAQs provide further information on how the Quality Accounts proposals are being developed. In particular they highlight the work being undertaken in the East of England region to test the principles of quality reporting in advance of the detailed design phase.

Supporting information for Peers
The information documents aim to give further detail on the underlying policy intention and possible forms of implementation.  The supporting information relating to Quality Accounts is made available below:

Enable the piloting of direct payments for health care

The Bill facilitates the further development of ways to give patients greater personalisation and control over the health care services they receive.

The Bill does this by enabling the piloting of direct payments for healthcare, within the wider programme to pilot personal health budgets. Personal health budgets are part of a range of policies designed to personalise NHS services, including care planning and patient choice.

Supporting information for Peers
The information documents aim to give further detail on the underlying policy intention and possible forms of implementation.  The supporting information relating to direct payments is made available below:

Establishing innovation prizes

The Bill helps to foster an enterprise and innovation culture within the NHS by creating new prizes for innovations that directly benefit patients and the public.

Part 2 – Improving the performance of NHS services

Establishing a regime for unsustainable NHS providers

The Bill protects patients and staff from failing services.  It ensures high quality local services for all patients and service continuity in the event of organisational failure by establishing a regime for unsustainable NHS providers.

Increasing powers of suspension

The Bill enables the Secretary of State to suspend public appointees of Strategic Health Authorities and relevant Arms Length Bodies in order to strengthen the way the healthcare system holds leaders to account when they fail to meet the requirements of public office.

Part 3 – Improving public health and miscellaneous

Strengthening tobacco control

The Bill prohibits the display of tobacco products at the point of sale and creates powers to control the sale of tobacco from vending machines.

These provisions will help to reduce the impact of tobacco on health and well-being in future generations by protecting children and young people from the harm caused by smoking.

Tobacco provisions: frequently asked questions (FAQS)
During the passage of the Health Bill a number of questions have been raised about what removing tobacco displays would mean in practice. This factsheet aims to answer some of the common questions.

Fact sheet and presentation on the tobacco provisions
On 25 February 2009 a meeting was held in the House of Lords on the tobacco provisions contained in the Bill, open to all interested Peers. For that meeting the Department of Health produced a fact sheet on the removal of tobacco displays and a presentation that was given at the meeting.  Both documents are available below.

Supporting information for Peers
The information documents aim to give further detail on the underlying policy intention and possible forms of implementation.  The supporting information relating to tobacco is made available below:

Reforming pharmacy 

The Bill reforms current arrangements for pharmacies applying to provide NHS services and how performance meets required standards to ensure they are providing high quality services responsive to local needs.

Pharmacy provisions - questions and answers from meeting with stakeholders
A stakeholder meeting was held on 20 January to discuss the pharmacy provisions in the Health Bill.  A note of the questions and answers discussed during the meeting are available below.

Supporting information for Peers
The information documents aim to give further detail on the underlying policy intention and possible forms of implementation.  The supporting information relating to pharmacy is made available below:

Extending the adult social care complaints procedure

The Bill extends the remit of the Local Government Ombudsman to enable him to consider complaints from people who arrange their own adult social care. This will place such users on a similar footing to those adults whose social care is arranged and/or funded by Local Authorities.

Calculating GP and dentist pay

The Bill enables Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to continue to assist in statistical enquiries carried out by or on behalf of the Department of Health relating to the earnings and expenses of GPs and dentists by providing relevant data in a summarised and anonymised form. This annual exercise is currently conducted on behalf of the Secretary of State and the devolved administrations by the NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care.

Impact assessment for the Health Bill 2009

Impact assessments are prepared as part of the process to make policy and provide an assessment of the costs, benefits and risks of a proposal on businesses, charities or the voluntary sector.

The Health Bill was introduced to Parliament on 15 January 2009. At that time the Department of Health published impact assessments for those areas of the Bill that met the thresholds for requiring an impact assessment. The Bill has now finished its passage through the House Lords and has received its first reading in the House of Commons. Where appropriate, the impact assessments have been updated for the start of the Commons process. The cover note summarises some of the main types of cost and benefit for each proposals, which are described in detail in the individual impact assessments.

History

The Health Bill, then called the National Health Service Reform Bill, was contained in the Draft Legislative Programme published in May 2008.

The Health Bill was announced in the Queen’s Speech during the state opening of Parliament on 3 December 2008.

The Bill was introduced into the House of Lords on 15 January 2009 and was published the following day.

Publications

Joint Committee on Human Rights: Report on the Health Bill

The Joint Committee on Human Rights, which considers matters relating to human rights in the UK,  published its Eleventh Report entitled Legislative Scrutiny, Health Bill, Marine and Coastal Access Bill.

 Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee - response to the Health Bill

The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee is appointed by the House of Lords to consider the powers in each Bill to make secondary legislation (for example, regulations and orders). The Department submitted a memorandum to the Committee explaining the powers in the Health Bill. The Department's memorandum and the Committee's response can be found in the 'Third Report' of the Committee, available via the link below:

Reports on consultation

The following reports on consultation were published alongside the Bill:

List of other related documents

The Bill’s compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights

Lord Darzi of Denham has made the following statement under section 19(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act 1998:

In my view the provisions of the Health Bill are compatible with the Convention rights.

Additional links

Ordering publications

Contact details for obtaining hard-copy DH publications.

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