Labour has mounted a last-ditch bid to keep the government’s controversial NHS reforms off the statute book after the legislation cleared the House of Lords.
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has secured an emergency Commons debate today in a final attempt to delay the Health and Social Care Bill.
The legislation completed its passage through the Lords last night after the government saw off two blocking amendments - one tabled by Labour and the other by the former SDP leader, Lord Owen.
The bill now returns to the Commons today where MPs will consider amendments made in the upper chamber in what is expected to be the final stage of its passage through Parliament before receiving the royal assent.
In theory, Labour’s emergency debate could allow MPs to delay the bill’s progress until the government publishes an internal assessment of the risks posed by the reforms to the NHS in England.
But with a previous Commons attempt to halt the legislation having failed last week, despite a revolt by a handful of Liberal Democrat MPs, Labour’s chances of success appear slim.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said: “The government must come clean about the damage this bill will do to the NHS and publish the risk register.
“If they persist in piling secrecy on top of broken promises, the public will be in no doubt that they want to hide the truth.”
The 90-minute debate will allow MPs to decide whether the transition risk register document should be published before the Commons considers the Lords’ amendments.
The Information Commissioner has ruled the document should be released and a tribunal upheld the decision after an appeal by the government to block its publication.
The government has said that it cannot decide how to respond until it has seen the tribunal’s detailed judgment which it has yet to receive.
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