Better Health For All

On Monday 23 April, the ‘Do No Harm’ amendment, tabled by Lord Warner to protect the public’s health as we leave the EU, reached Report stage of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill.

Responding on behalf of the Government, Lord Duncan of Springbank accepted that Ministers had “not thus far provided sufficient assurance…on the issue of public health”. At the despatch box, he presented fresh legal analysis of Clauses 4 and 6 in an effort to reassure Members that the Bill, as currently framed, already provides adequate legal safeguards to ensure that as we leave the EU there will be no erosion of our vital public health legislation, policy and practice.

In offering this new analysis, Lord Duncan acknowledged that Peers and the coalition of 54 medical Royal Colleges and health organisations supporting the amendment would need time to reflect on the detail, and so, in a rare Parliamentary move, agreed to revisit the issues at Third Reading. We welcome the Government’s reassurances and will now carefully scrutinise its legal advice. Should we feel that it does not offer sufficient certainty, we will encourage Ministers to table an amendment that will do, or, if necessary, will work with Peers to table a further amendment to the Bill.

Together, as a coalition, we’re changing the course of the debate and putting the public’s health at centre stage of the Brexit negotiations. We thank Lord Warner and the Labour and Liberal Democrat frontbench health spokespeople, Lord Hunt and Baroness Jolly, and Crossbench Peer Baroness Finlay, for tabling so important an amendment and working so tirelessly to make the case in Parliament. And, in turn, we thank our partner organisations and our members.

Former health minister and Crossbench Peer, Lord Warner said: “I welcome legal clarification that Government accepts EU protections of public health will be carried over after Brexit as part of retained EU law. We will return to the issue again at Third Reading to ensure these guarantees are adequate.”

Prof John Middleton, President, UK Faculty of Public Health, said: “I’m proud that the health and medical sector has made such a strong case for protecting the public’s health as we leave the EU, and am encouraged that the Government has recognised that the sector needs further reassurance.

While we take the time to understand whether these assurances do what we want them to, we look forward to continuing to work with the government towards our shared goal of safeguarding the public’s health as we leave the EU.”