“The Mackay amendment is both dangerous and enlightening”

From Peter Roderick
“The Mackay amendment is both dangerous and enlightening. It introduces a political,rather than a legal, statement as subsecton (a), which is unlikely to get past the Parliamentary draughtspersons. More importantly in (b) it makes clear that the focus of the new secton 1(2) is interventon by the giving of directons in the event of seven listed circumstances of failures, emergencies and breaches of duty to cooperate. This is a far cry from the current secton 1(2), and demonstrates the government’s intenton of removing the Secretary of State’s duty to provide or secure provision of health services in England. Although the Mackay amendment also refers to other functons, in this regard it is just like the government’s proposed section 1(2) in Clause 1, and offers nothing.”