The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has issued another briefing to MPs ahead of the Health and Care Bill returning to the House of Commons for the second consideration of Lords’ amendments.
The Health and Care Bill is returning for consideration of the changes that the House of Lords made on 5 April 2022. The RCP is one of over 100 health and care organisations urging the government and MPs to support Amendment 29B in lieu which was passed by the Lords by 187 to 151.
The revised amendment in lieu seeks to address some of the government’s concerns while still making provision for the national assessments of current and future workforce numbers that are required for the system to plan and policy makers to scrutinise. A dedicated briefing on this amendment is available online.
Amendment 29B in lieu makes important compromises which we hope will lead to progress on this issue:
- it now requires the Secretary of State to publish a workforce assessment every three years, rather than two;
- revises down the maximum length of projections to 15 years to align with government’s own plans, and;
- removes the requirement for assessments to be independently verified.
We hope progress will be made on including regular workforce projections in the bill given the strong cross-party and sector support.
