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10 Apr 2003 : Column 494—continued
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Paul Boateng): That sounds like charges.
Dr. Fox: Those are not my words, but those of the Prime Minister in one of his recent lectures. The Chief Secretary says that it sounds like charges; yes, it sounds very much like that to me, and all those who listened to the Prime Minister's speech would have been thinking exactly the same. The Chief Secretary is famous for scoring own goals in his television performances and he has managed one in the House, too.
The private agenda is often mentioned. It is not the Conservative Government but the current Secretary of State who has signed a new concordat with the private
sector. Diagnostic and treatment centres are run by the private sector; there is private management for failing trusts; and the private finance initiative has been exalted to a near religious status. Labour Back Benchers might like to know that, last year, income from private patients in the NHS rose by 7.9 per cent., despite all the Government's rhetoric.We are now seeing a decline in the number of beds and an increase in the number of bureaucrats. The number of beds in 1996–97 was 198,000, but is now 184,000—a reduction of 14,000. Yet the administration and estate staff have increased from 196,000 to 224,000. A Labour document states:
- "Those who parade such figures do not realise that it is made up of people like painters and gardeners".
The situation has become absurd. We have looked at data from the Audit Commission and others, and we have looked at the Government's figures on how clean the hospitals are. The House will be pleased to know that more and more hospitals are hitting the Government's top target for cleanliness. However, in the 20 trusts with the highest rates of hospital-acquired infection—where people are most likely to die of it—13 get the Government's top rating for cleanliness and others get the second-top rating. That will be of huge reassurance to patients. The system suffers from endemic fiddling of the figures—both by the Government and encouraged by the Government.
The Government have thrown money at the system. Funding has increased by 21.5 per cent. in real terms; yet, by the classic measure of finished consultant episodes, activity is up by 1.5 per cent. The number of patients who were admitted to hospital last year actually fell by 0.5 per cent. It really takes talent to spend so much money and get so little back for it. We have to take the politicians out of the running of the service. That will mean abolishing the Government's central targets, giving power back to the professionals and giving real choice to the patients. The Government cannot succeed in running the health service by the present model. The Government believe that the patients are there to service the NHS, when it should be that the NHS is there to service the patients. That is the real difference.
5.52 pm
The Paymaster General (Dawn Primarolo): I want to return to the Budget debate and to the discussions of the past two days, but in my concluding remarks I will turn
to the points that the hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) has made on the health service. I thank hon. Members on both sides of the Chamber for their contributions over the two days of the Budget debate. They will forgive me if I am unable to reply to every point in this short wind-up speech. Many thoughtful views have been expressed—by hon. Members on both sides of the Chamber, surprisingly—on a number of important challenges that face this country.Britain has sustained the longest period of economic growth and the longest period of growth in living standards for half a century. Unlike the American, German and Japanese economies, the British economy has had uninterrupted growth in every quarter over the past six years. We have the lowest inflation for 30 years, the lowest interest rates for 40 years and the highest levels of employment in our history. Despite difficult world economic conditions, we are able, because of decisions that we have made, to meet our military and security costs abroad and at home and to pay for the costs of building the peace. We are able to maintain, in full, our record of investment in schools, hospitals, transport and policing. We are able to provide help for British business, industry and commerce.
This Budget marks a new stage for the Government. Having made reforms since 1997, we are now seeking to achieve a more flexible and more enterprising full-employment Britain—a Britain of economic strength and social justice. We have set out our detailed economic reforms, which are aimed at achieving, for each region and nation, the greater flexibility that we need to develop and maintain the global competitiveness that is necessary for us to secure our goal of full employment.
We should be clear. The flexibility that we seek in employment and pay, and in the liberalisation of capital markets and product markets generally, is not secured at the expense of fairness to families and members of our community—quite the opposite. It is underwritten by policies to promote fairness through full employment, tackling poverty through tax credits and better public services. In his opening speech, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, outlined our undertakings to assist lone parents, to improve employment rates and to develop skills. All are central to our strategy.
In an intervention, the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke) referred to a reply that had been given to his office about tax credits. He should not have been given such a reply. That should never have happened and I apologise to him. I shall be more than happy to take up personally the specific inquiry to which he referred. It is unacceptable that a Member of Parliament should have been given such information.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke: My constituent told my office that that was the explanation that she had received locally. My office was not given that explanation, but it was given information that implied that serious delays would take place so I welcome the right hon. Lady's indication that she will look into the matter.
Dawn Primarolo: None the less, my offer to the right hon. and learned Gentleman stands. It is unacceptable
that delays should have occurred and that Members of Parliament should be advised incorrectly. That needs to be dealt with swiftly.About 3.9 million claims for payment of tax credit have been received against an eligible population of 5.7 million. That does not include up to 1.3 million people in receipt of income support or jobseeker's allowance who will automatically receive the increase this year in their child premiums. The volume of claims is enormous and, unfortunately, errors are inevitable in some cases, but it is not correct to give the impression that there is excessive delay or that people have not been paid on time the money that was due to them.
Mr. Willetts: Will the right hon. Lady give way?
Dawn Primarolo: I will, but I hope that hon. Members will then allow me to reply to the debate.
Mr. Willetts: Will the Minister assure all the people throughout the country who, until last week, were receiving working families tax credit that they will all receive this week the child credit to which they are entitled? That is the problem.
Dawn Primarolo: The problem is whether people have applied for the credit and when. The hon. Gentleman is knowledgeable about such systems, especially the vastness of the tax credit system, to which more than 5 million people have access, so he will realise that if somebody applied late for their tax credit, it may not be possible—even with all the will in the world—to get their payment to them in time for it to be continuous. They will get the money and we are prioritising to ensure that they do. However, it would be to make a false promise to the House to give the undertaking that the hon. Gentleman requests. For example, where people have sent in wrong information, late information, incomplete information or information that we have been unable to verify, I could not make such an undertaking to the House.
In his speech, the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe talked about unbalanced growth. In particular, he suggested that the wealth-creating sectors of the economy were being neglected. The Government recognise that manufacturing is disproportionately affected by the slowdown, but the same is true across the globe, as he knows. That is why the Government have implemented a proactive enterprise agenda, which has been welcomed by the CBI in its response to the Budget, as a way of continuing to develop and enhance enterprise and entrepreneurship, and to ensure growth in the sector.
The right hon. and learned Gentleman also suggested that the growth forecasts were optimistic. We do not agree, and nor do three quarters of the independent forecasts which, for 2003, are within or above the Government's forecast range. Since 1997, the Government have, if anything, tended to underestimate growth forecasts.
I entirely agree with the right hon. and learned Gentleman's point about the importance of understanding the trends in the global economy, but it simply is not true, as he said, that business investment is suffering unduly in the United Kingdom. British investment has weakened across the world—in the United States, by 12 per cent. We have also experienced that pressure in Britain. However, total real business investment for 2002 remains at 14.5 per cent., which is higher than in 1997.
It being Six o'clock, the debate stood adjourned.
Debate to be resumed tomorrow.
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