Mike O'Brien (Minister of State (Health Services), Department of Health; North Warwickshire, Labour)

The hon. Gentleman and I could stand here and knock seven bells out of the previous Conservative Administration, saying that their funding formula was awful and that they are to blame for a lot of the problems in the health service. We can both agree on that, but I am not sure that it will take us very far. We have to deal with the current problems. The situation is not just one in which the Government can decide to give a lot of extra money to one area; the funding is allocated. The issue is devolved and pushed down to the PCTs. If we take funding from one area to give to another area such as Cornwall, we will create problems for that first area.

The best way of managing the situation is by making it clear that we recognise when there is a strong and good case, and we have been clear that Cornwall has a good case. We have acknowledged that and increased the funding steadily to bring it up to the target that we want to hit, without damaging other areas. We want to make sure that the issue is addressed over a period of time. We can rehearse this argument time and again, but that is essentially how the Government approach it. Such an approach is a perfectly reasonable way to ensure NHS funding stability.

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