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Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, is the Minister aware that promises, commitments and strategies will not help? What really matters is performance. The Government have now been in office long enough to show some signs of performance as regards their promises. So far, there has been none.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: Yes, my Lords, delivery is critical in relation to transport. That requires political will—for example, in relation to the commitment to the railways—to make a difference. That is what the Government are doing.
Viscount Astor: My Lords, there is a certain "end of term" feeling to the Minister's answers this afternoon. We wonder why. But is he not finally just slightly embarrassed that the Transport Select Committee in another place—on which there were 11 members of his party, a majority on the committee—published a unanimous report whose conclusion was that the Government's plan is ill balanced?
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: My Lords, I do not remotely have an end-of-term feeling. It seems to me that the rest of the House has an end-of-term feeling. As I said in reply to the noble Baroness, Lady Seccombe, we do not accept the characterisation in the Select Committee's report. The 10-year transport plan sets out a strategic programme for sustained investment over 10 years. What has been lacking for all too long in relation to transport is a long-term commitment to the future of public transport—and that is what the 10-year plan included.
Baroness Howarth of Breckland: My Lords, will the Minister reassure the House that in the 10-year plan there is adequate concern for rural communities? I am fascinated by this debate. It takes me two minutes to catch a train on the Jubilee Line to an excellent Underground system that gets me to the House in half-an-hour, whereas I have no transport at all in my home town—indeed, from one village, there is not one bus. I simply seek reassurance that we are looking at rural communities as well as spending so much time worrying about the urban communities.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: My Lords, transport in rural areas is vitally important. Since this Government
came to power, there have been 1,800 extra bus services in rural areas because of the importance that we attach to it.
Lord Faulkner of Worcester: My Lords, does my noble and learned friend—
The Lord Privy Seal (Lord Williams of Mostyn): My Lords, it is the turn of the Labour Benches.
Lord Faulkner of Worcester: My Lords, does my noble and learned friend endorse the comment of the rail regulator, Mr Winsor, in the aftermath of the recent Potters Bar accident, about Railtrack's contractual arrangements? He said that Railtrack was replacing "discredited contracts" with "stable, long term relationships" and taking more direct engineering responsibility. He went on to say:
- "They are taking more control and direction of the contractors, and I think that Railtrack's contracting strategy, which I have criticised severely in the past, is now being reformed—and Railtrack is reforming in exactly the right way".
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: My Lords, yes, it is an important legacy. I also draw attention to the fact that the rail regulator, Mr Tom Winsor, also pointed out—I do not know whether it was in the same interview—that the response to the Potters Bar crash involved a much more unified industry in which the regulator, SRA, Railtrack and central government all acted together to try to identify the problems and deal with them as quickly as possible. That represented a real change, and it represents something that the late Secretary of State did.
Government Advertising
3.3 p.m.
Lord McNally asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What plans they have to strengthen independent oversight, audit and scrutiny of government advertising paid for from public funds.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Macdonald of Tradeston): My Lords, as noble Lords will be aware, there is independent oversight, audit and scrutiny of government accounts through the National Audit Office and the Committee of Public Accounts. Following a quinquennial review of the Central Office of Information, the chief executive of the COI will have an additional role as the Government's chief adviser on marketing communications and information campaigns, working with the director of communications and strategy at No. 10 Downing
Street. This will strengthen the co-ordination and planning of departmental publicity strategies across Whitehall.
Lord McNally: My Lords, will the Minister confirm that, as the Answer makes clear, the last line of control in these decisions is a political appointment in the shape of Mr Alastair Campbell? Did the Minister have an opportunity last Sunday to see the "Panorama" programme? It contained some of the most public and stringent criticism I have ever heard of government malpractice by a former permanent under-secretary; namely, the noble Lord, Lord Armstrong. Does the Minister not think that it is time for a Civil Service Act which gives civil servants the strength to condemn government abuse of power before they retire?
Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: My Lords, Mr Alastair Campbell will not be able to intervene in the Central Office of Information. Carol Fisher, the executive, will continue to report to me as Minister for the Cabinet Office. I did have time to see the programme in question, and I noted that the noble Lord, Lord Armstrong, was concerned about the increase in government spend between a pre-election year and an election year. In 1999-2000, the figure increased from £118 million to £192 million. Looking back, however, I discovered that during the noble Lord's tenure as Cabinet Secretary, real-terms spending trebled from £66 million in 1985-86, two years before the general election, to £192 million in the year of the election itself. So there is a cycle in these matters. That is undoubtedly one of the issues that will arise if there is consultation—to which the noble Lord, Lord McNally, may wish to contribute—on a Civil Service Act.
The Earl of Northesk: My Lords, going back to the 1980s, does the noble Lord recall these words:
- "You can see quite clearly that the purpose of this is not to give us, the public, the facts, but is to sell the government's political message and that's quite wrong"?
Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: My Lords, one of the differences between the type of advertising campaigns used in the 1980s, to which I have referred, and more recent ones is that whereas much of that exceptional trebling of spend in the year before the 1987 general election was devoted to privatisation advertising for British Gas and BP, advertising before the most recent election focused on issues such as recruitment to the Armed Forces, the police and nursing. The latter campaigns turned out to be extremely effective.
Lord McNally: My Lords, when will the Minister realise that this Government were elected to change behaviour from the behaviour they "inherited" from the last lot, not to offer us the defence, "Well, they did the same"? When is the penny going to drop that
excessive spinning and abuse of public funds for political ends works against the Government and their reputation, not in their favour?
Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: My Lords, I stress that very clear and well-established conventions guide government information officers in commissioning advertising. The conventions have been place for 20 years and dictate that the subject matter should be relevant to direct government responsibility, should be objective and explanatory in tone and not tendentious or polemical, should be conducted in an economic manner, and should not be liable to misrepresentation as being party political. I suggest that that is the case with this Government's advertising.
Lord Stoddart of Swindon: My Lords, does the noble Lord agree that, above all, advertising by the Government should not be economical with the truth? Does he also agree that a good deal of government advertising is worthless in that it does not do the intended job? In those circumstances, will the Government examine the advertising budget to see whether a lot of money is being wasted that could be saved?
Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: My Lords, I remind the House of the famous quote that 50 per cent of every advertising budget is wasted; the only difficulty is working out which half. The COI's total advertising spend in this area is £192 million, as opposed to BT's spend of about £100 million. Considering the volume of government expenditure, that is a very small percentage of total turnover. There is not only a rigorous system of scrutiny by an advisory committee on advertising, but audit through the National Audit Office, and oversight by Cabinet Office Ministers to ensure that the money is well spent. The quinquennial review gave a very good bill of health to the Central Office of Information.
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