Mr. Sean Egan:

The patient safety Act is important legislation across a number of areas, specifically with regard to private hospitals. It extends our current monitoring role from publicly funded or provided services, into the private sector. We will have a remit for inspecting private hospitals in the same way we inspect public hospitals for the first time. We have a role in a defined area around radiation protection in the private sector which is well established at this stage, but with the commencement of the legislation we will have a role in conducting inspections in private healthcare. They will also be required under the legislation to notify us of serious patient safety incidents in the same way as public services will need to do so. It is quite a significant additional expansion of our remit.