Commentary on Sections Part 3 - Regulation of Health and Adult Social Care Services Chapter 7 – Miscellaneous and general Section 147 – Secretary of State’s duty as respects variation in provision of health services
990.This section inserts new section 12E into the NHS Act. This is intended to ensure that the Secretary of State does not, in exercising the functions specified in subsection (2), deliberately favour any particular sector, such as the public, private or voluntary sector. Specifically, the new section prohibits the Secretary of State from seeking to increase or decrease the proportion of NHS healthcare services that are delivered by a particular description of providers. The Act provides for similar duties on Monitor under section 62(10) and the NHS Commissioning Board under section 23.