I will speak to and move amendments 3, 3A and 4, which are all in my name. I will first cover amendments 3A and 3. Amendment 3 sets out in the bill a requirement for the commissioner to produce a charter for the benefit of patients and their representatives, and to ensure that there is consultation on the charter, including with patients, and that it takes their views into account. I am grateful to Ms Minto and the Government for carefully considering the issues that I raised at stages 1 and 2, and for working with me to ensure that provision for a charter is included in the bill.

Amendment 3 will place on the commissioner a duty to produce a charter that would set out what the commissioner considers to be best practice and appropriate standards that are expected of all healthcare providers, particularly in relation to the importance of engaging with patients and families. The commissioner would be required to take the expectations that are set out in the charter into account when considering a healthcare provider’s handling of any incident.

Critically, the charter will send an important signal to patients and families and to healthcare providers that the requirement to act is on NHS boards and other healthcare providers, and not on patients and families. Those who have been harmed or bereaved should not have to push for answers from healthcare providers, and nor is it acceptable that, in times of pain or grief, patients, families and loved ones should have to struggle to have their experiences acknowledged and their voices heard. That is why it is so important that the amendment makes particular reference to engagement with patients and families.

Engagement means more than simply passing on information, important though that is. It is vital to me—as, I know, it is to all of us in the Parliament—that providers of healthcare listen to and engage meaningfully with families and their representatives about their experiences; that they engage in two-way dialogue with patients and families rather than simply deliver information; and that they use the insights gained from that engagement to strengthen patient safety and continuously improve their services, so that mistakes are not repeated and harm is prevented.

I turn to amendment 3A, which is in addition to amendment 3. Amendment 3A was not agreed with the minister, but, on reflection, I thought that it would be sensible to add it, because it is important that the commissioner has available to them powers of accountability to ensure that private companies that supply medicines and medical devices are captured in the category of person required to provide information in an investigation.

Amendment 3A would allow the commissioner to

“prepare and publish a report on the compliance of a health care provider with the”

patient safety

“charter insofar as such compliance impacts on the safety of health care.”

The amendment is a further attempt to ensure that transparency and accountability are hardwired into the bill. It does not seek to instruct or bind the commissioner, but it would provide them with the option to produce a report if they felt that that was necessary. I therefore urge members to support amendment 3A.

Let me touch briefly on amendment 4. The reasons for the amendment have already been set out, so I urge members to vote for amendments 3, 3A and 4, which will ensure that the commissioner consults on the charter with patients, members of the advisory group and others in the same way as they consult on the principles and the strategic plan.

I move amendment 3.

Amendment 3A moved—[Jackie Baillie].