Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

Lord Herbert of South Downs Excerpts

Wednesday 15th April 2026 Grand Committee

[Lord Herbert of South Downs (Con)]

My Lords, I want to add to the comments and questions made by my noble friend Lady Harding about the potential impact of this regulatory change on horseracing. It is a very important sport, as the Minister responsible knows, and a sport that is already under considerable financial pressure, despite its tremendous popularity. There is concern about what the unintended consequences of this significant change may be, the bureaucratic burden that could be created by the extension of the CQC’s jurisdiction into event medicine and the cost, so I seek reassurance that Ministers are alive to these issues.

I want to raise a particular issue, which has also been raised by other noble Lords, about the possibility of exempting from registration the healthcare that is provided to athletes, performers and officials, as opposed to the healthcare provided to the public. I understand that that exemption exists already for treatment provided under arrangements between employers and employees, but not more widely. However, much medical provision might not be on an employer-employee basis and therefore would not be covered by the exemption. That would create an anomaly.

Ministers are of course right to draw attention to the importance of this issue, given the terrible events in the Manchester Arena nearly a decade ago, the awful loss of life and the very large numbers of people injured. But the extension of the CQC’s remit, as a consequence of the inquiry’s recommendation, was precisely to improve healthcare provision for the public. I am not aware that there was any perceived problem with healthcare provided for athletes and competitors—a much narrower group of people. That was not, of course, what the inquiry was thinking about when it proposed this extension, but the extension at the moment covers them, so there may be significant unintended consequences.

We know that one survey suggests that over a third of the doctors who currently provide medical cover for racing may not continue if required to register, because of the bureaucratic burden. There is obviously a tremendous reassurance job that has to be done, at the very least, but it seems that we also need to address the fundamental issue. I wonder whether the Minister would accept that there is a difference between the care that is provided for the public, which is what the inquiry was all about, and the arrangements for athletes and competitors, which are different and where there was not a problem that needed to be addressed. However, accepting that an event healthcare standard is a good thing, and that Ministers will look at the potential for exempting from registration healthcare provided for athletes, performers and officials on that basis, this instrument would seem to be commonsensical.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, this is one of those debates where you think, “Who do I disagree with?” I am afraid that I have not disagreed with anything from anybody. As I speak for my party, it is important for me to restate that things went wrong with the treatment of the Manchester Arena disaster. We should do something about it—that would be great.

The problem here is that we seem to have gone far too wide. As the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, asked, how far down do you go when covering an event? For instance, for small rugby union clubs—my own sporting background—you are lucky if there are three men and a dog watching. That is your crowd, but a local cup game could have a couple of thousand. Where does that support structure kick in? That is something that all amateur sport will confront from time to time. This is merely the first opportunity for the Minister to correct these perceptions. We need to have some cut-off points, going from when it is enough simply to have a first-aider within earshot to when we need better medical support and structure. When that changes and how they interact is really what the discussion here is about.

When it comes to sport, please let us not do anything that stops sporting events happening. There is a fear that we will do so inadvertently by providing a greater bureaucratic burden on providing help. We hope that the Government will not do that. I hope that the Department of Health will not do something that will make the country intrinsically less healthy. That is really what we are looking at.

Let us look at other specialist events. This is not an interest, but I live in the village of Lambourn so, even if I did not want to be, I am very aware of things to do with equestrian sport and particularly races. Anything to do with horses is intrinsically dangerous; indeed, we have a rehabilitation centre for neck and back injuries in Lambourn. When it comes to racing, as my wife has often pointed out to me, there are not many events when an ambulance follows you down the course as you are taking part—so there are structures there. If something that organised is raising concerns—it is not because they want it to be there but because it has to be there—there might well be something worth listening to. We must make sure, when we deliver this, that we do not throw the baby out with the bathwater and that good intentions are erased out. We should go through all those things.

The Government need to start doing something to get better information out there about exactly what they are doing, where the barriers are and what will happen. A series of meetings might help—possibly with parliamentarians and certainly with larger groups—and they should get the information out quickly. It will dramatically help to let the information out in dribs and drabs—as and when they see fit as they go forward—setting out their intentions, and we will bring in stuff behind it. That way, if there is a real fault-line here, as opposed to a fear of one, we will find out. Then we can start to do something about it.

Can the Government give us something that reassures us on our worries about the extra bureaucratic burden, given that people are terrified? They are one newspaper report and a few tweets away from people having a panic about everybody being sued every time anybody gets cuts in an amateur football game. What are they doing? Where are the structures going? That is what is required here.

We all want the big events to be safer, but they will have got it wrong if they apply this to an open mic night at a pub and a Sunday league football game at the same time. We must make sure that people know where those fault-lines are. The exemption for people taking part in sports events is a no-brainer. Can we make sure that this happens and that people know about it? It is clear that they do not, at the moment, and that is a fundamental flaw in the Government’s approach.