Plans to shake up NHS pass House of Lords vote

Peers rejected by a margin of 330-262 an attempt by former SDP leader Lord Owen to delay the Health and Social Care Bill by referring it to a special committee.

The house also voted down a bid to kill off the legislation altogether by refusing it a second reading, defeating an amendment from Labour’s Lord Rea by 354 votes to 220.

Lord Owen denied his amendment was designed to block the Bill by preventing it clearing Parliament by the end of the session next spring. He insisted that a special committee was the only way to ensure the reforms – which will see responsibility for the vast majority of health spending handed over to GPs and clinicians – were properly examined.

However Health Minister Lord Howe wrote to peers on Monday warning that any delay “could well prove fatal” to the legislation, adding: “This is not a risk that I believe this House should take.”

Yesterday’s vote clears the way for the Bill to continue through the committee and report stages of the Lords before becoming law.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “The vote is an important step towards giving the NHS the clarity and certainty it needs and delivering a world-class health service for patients.

“We look forward to full scrutiny in the main Lords committee, drawing on peers’ wide expertise to ensure that our modernisation plans are as effective as possible.”

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley may still, however, face a lengthy struggle getting his plans on to the statute book by the end of the session in April.

One Labour peer said Lords authorities should “dust off the camp-beds” in anticipation of late-night sittings during the committee stage of the Bill, which will take place on the floor of the House.

And Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said Labour would fight for “substantial and drastic” changes to the legislation if Mr Lansley was not willing to drop it now.

“The best thing for the NHS right now would be to drop the Bill so it can focus on the financial challenge and get through this dangerous period,” he added

During two days of debate in the Lords, the reform plans came under sustained attack from many of the 100 peers who queued up to speak.

Fertility doctor and television presenter Lord Winston denounced the Bill as “unnecessary and, I’m afraid to say, irresponsible”.

Labour’s deputy leader in the Lords, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, said: “The scale of concern, the scale of mistrust amongst the NHS and amongst the public is greater than I have ever known it before.”

But Conservative former health secretary Lord Fowler warned it would be “unacceptable” for peers to block the legislation.

He warned: “Unless we are careful, we will leave the health service in uncertainty about the future. We will leave them in suspended animation.”

During the debate, a petition run online by the 38 Degrees lobby group gathered more than 150,000 signatures urging peers to block the Bill.