HEALTH ACT 2009

Health Act 2009



Health Act 2009

Introduction

These explanatory notes relate to the Health Act 2009 which received Royal Assent on November 12, 2009. They have been prepared by the Health Department to assist the reader in understanding the law. No part of the Act and have not been approved by Parliament. Notes should be read in conjunction with the law. They are not, and are not intended as an exhaustive description of the law. So when a section or part of a section does not appear to require an explanation or comment, it is marked as uncertain (Alonso, 2003, 157).

Background

The bill was introduced in the House of Lords on January 15, 2009. Professor Lord Darzi of Denham, Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Health made a statement of compatibility under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA). The explanatory note accompanying the bill contained the Government's view of the compatibility of the bill of human rights in paragraphs 364 to 385.

The bill had its second reading on February 4, 2009. Accomplished Great Commission on March 17, 2009. Report phase should begin April 28, 2009.

Lord Darzi wrote to us on January 28, 2009 and provides us with information on the involvement of the provisions of the Health Charter of human rights. We are grateful to the Minister for his letter, which helped our consideration of the bill at an early stage. We wrote to Lord Darzi, February 12, 2009 asking for a fuller explanation of the Government's view on the compatibility of human rights aspects of the bill. It received the Minister's reply on 3 March 2009. Welcome to the full and prompt responses provided by the Minister.

After our recent practice, we publish our correspondence with the Minister on our website and invited submissions on human rights implications of the bill. Public comments received along with this report. We welcome the participation of public agencies and interested in our work of legislative control.

Explanatory Notes

The Government's attempts to explain how, in his view, the bill complies with human rights, have been mixed. On the one hand, the explanatory notes to the bill dealing with the compatibility of human rights are a little more than 20 paragraphs. At first glance, appear to offer a fairly detailed analysis of the compatibility of human rights bill. However, in a series of points that are unclear and only provide a superficial analysis, without further explanation. The human rights section of the explanatory notes is also difficult to read because it does not follow the structure of the bill does not contain subtitles and focus groups around the articles of the European Convention on Human Rights rather than specific terms.

Furthermore, Lord Darzi then gave us an unsolicited letter that, while replicating the human rights analysis is helpful structured, that is clause by clause, with the support of all the provisions of the Health Act, or no, in the decade of government point of view, give rise to problems of compatibility with the European ...