Andrew Lansley confident he can get NHS balance of power right

Having overall responsibility for the NHS while giving significant powers to the NHS Commissioning Board is a balance that is "very important" to get right, health secretary Andrew Lansley has told MPs. Giving evidence to the House of Commons health committee on 5 July, Lansley said that he believes he can get the balance right and dismissed suggestions that there was no clear accountability link between the public and the secretary of state. He said that the government has always maintained the principle that the job of the secretary of state is to be clear about the mandate of the NHS on behalf of taxpayers and parliament "I think what people were concerned about, which the Future Forum quite properly reported and we've responded to , is that people want to know that that process of setting the mandate does not distance the secretary of state from a duty to provide a comprehensive healthcare service," he said. The "multi-year" mandate will be set out by Lansley and will be passed onto the NHS Commissioning Board, which will deliver the document to the health service. He said that the point of such a mandate was to convey to the health service what it is the government wants it to achieve, while leaving the NHS "free to determine how best they can achieve those results". During the session, which focused on the government's response to the NHS Future Forum report, Lansley spoke of giving the NHS "greater autonomy", but told committee members that he would have the power to step in if there were "a significant failure on the part of the NHS Commissioning Board". Under the government's plans the board has overall responsibility for a budget of £80bn, of which it will allocate £60bn directly to clinical commissioning groups, formerly known as GP commissioning consortiums. It will also directly commission a range of services including primary care and specialised services and have a key role in improving broader public health outcomes. This article is published by Guardian Professional. Join the Guardian Healthcare Network to receive regular emails on NHS innovation.