Clause 11 - Power of Secretary of State to give financial assistance
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
3:30 pm
Mr John Hutton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Barrow and Furness, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman is wrong. Ministers have not made any such announcement about shelving the shared financial services initiative. We made that clear when that false report appeared in newspapers. The hon. Gentleman follows ministerial announcements closely on our website, so I am surprised that he asked me that particular question. That story was false.
The debate has been interesting and wide-ranging, and I have nothing further to add to the issues that have been raised. I chastised myself after this morning's sitting for being so open in my opening remarks, and paving the way for what turned out to be a thorough scrutiny and investigation of the Government's financial plans. It is not often at the end of a debate that I can say that I feel thoroughly probed and scrutinised, but I feel that way at this moment. In the spirit of friendship across the divide, I should say that I am grateful to Conservative Members, and to my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing North, for exposing me to that invigorating cross-examination. I hope that I have provided at least some information that will throw some light on future proceedings. However, it is apparent that there is a substantial division of opinion between Labour and Conservative Members on how the distribution of resources through the NHS should be arranged.
Conservative Members clearly want to return to the time of open competition based on providing the lowest possible price for NHS services. We should not go down that road.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 11 ordered to stand part of the Bill.