The amendments seek to improve the framework surrounding Health Education England to ensure that sufficient regard is given to forward planning in work force matters.

Amendment 162 deals with two separate issues, but I will touch on the first only lightly given the airing it received in the previous debate. The amendment seeks to add further functions to the clause and therefore to extend the duties placed on Health Education England. The first new function bestowed on it is to promote an inclusive work force that should include disabled persons.

We have outlined in some detail the manner in which the whole work force benefits from extra inclusivity, and the amendment extends the logic of the argument in the previous debate. That is clear for everyone in Committee to see. This section of the amendment supports the aims of amendment 161, as discussed in the previous grouping, and again I extend my thanks to ALLFIE, which has worked so hard to bring this issue to our attention and to that of Members throughout the House to ensure that inclusive education is at the heart of what Health Education England does. As the Minister’s previous response indicated, we are all serious about that. It is a commendable aim, which I wholeheartedly support. I hope that the Minister will echo those sentiments in his remarks.

The rest of amendment 162 would add a further two duties to be placed on Health Education England. Clause 98 as it stands requires the Secretary of State to publish a document that specifies the objectives and priorities that the Secretary of State has set for Health Education England for the year ahead. Incidentally, for a Bill designed to promote the devolution of responsibilities to a local level, the Secretary of State’s inbox appears to be filling up rapidly.

Nothing in the Bill ensures that Health Education England takes a long-term approach to work force planning. It must ensure a sufficient number of skilled health care workers, that this sufficiency is maintained and that demand for staff is well matched to supply. To do so, a key focus for Health Education England is to be involved continuously with long-term planning. That is crucial in an industry where it takes years and years to train staff. Amendment 162 would therefore extend the matters to which Health Education England must have regard when exercising its functions. If the Minister opposes the amendment, I should be grateful for an explanation of how long-term work force planning can be guaranteed under the listed provisions.

On amendment 164, another key recommendation of the Francis report is the introduction of minimum staffing benchmarks to ensure a safe service. It is regrettable that the Government are dragging their feet on this, but it is a welcome step forward that Health Education England has a duty to ensure that sufficient staff are well trained. The amendment seeks to ensure sufficient parliamentary scrutiny should Health Education England fall short of that duty. I will elaborate on what the amendment would achieve and why that is necessary.

The amendment would add a subsection to clause 98 that would require the Secretary of State to make a statement to Parliament if Health Education England projected that the number of required skilled health care workers exceeded the numbers available. Therefore, if Health Education England were to project that there are or will be too few doctors, nurses, health care support workers, surgeons and so on, they would have to come to the House of Commons to make a statement on the matter. That would be necessary because hon. Members on both sides of the House would want to express their concern about what would be an extremely worrying scenario—vexatious, even—as well to scrutinise effectively the failure of a non-departmental body for which the Secretary of State had responsibility.

If Parliament’s authority is used to give Health Education England the means to function, it is right that it has effective oversight of its functions. Given that one of HEE’s key roles is to ensure that there are sufficient skilled workers in the health service, it would not be conducive to responsible governance to allow failure in that role to go by without scrutiny.

Some might argue that that scrutiny and oversight role would be better suited to, and carried out more effectively by, the Health Committee. That might be right, but the amendment would not stop HEE officials from being called to give evidence to that Committee. The amendment refers to the Secretary of State for the simple reason that, under clause 98(1), he or she will have responsibility for setting out objectives and priorities for Health Education England

“in relation to the education and training to be provided for health care workers”

If a shortfall in the number of required workers manifests itself, the Secretary of State will be as culpable as the non-departmental body for which he is responsible. Given the lack of requirement for long-term planning in the Bill, there appears to be the potential that a problem could be stored up for years to come. Indeed, reports are beginning to appear stating that that is the case, such as that from the future hospital commission of the Royal College of Physicians.

We need a system of checks and balances to be built into the system to ensure that there is accountability. The Secretary of State must shoulder at least some responsibility for any shortfall in the number of staff. Last year, the Care Quality Commission reported that 17 hospitals were operating with “unsafe staffing levels”. Now that the Government are creating a new quango to ensure that there are sufficient numbers of staff, while retaining influence by making yearly direction to Health Education England, we need scrutiny of the Secretary of State’s role in that. Does the Minister agree with Opposition Members that any shortfall in the number of staff needed would be serious and that it would be right for hon. Members to be able to scrutinise those responsible effectively?