Oral Answers to Questions — Health – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 23 March 1993.
Thomas McAvoy
, Glasgow Rutherglen
12:00,
23 March 1993
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has to introduce charges for NHS hospital patients.
Mrs Virginia Bottomley
The Secretary of State for Health
There are no such plans.
Thomas McAvoy
, Glasgow Rutherglen
The Secretary of State must be well aware that her Government briefed the media earlier this month that they were considering the introduction of charges such as those mentioned in my question. What assurance can the Secretary of State give the House that NHS charges for hospital patients will not be introduced? Or will that promise go the same way as the Prime Minister's promise not to introduce value added tax on domestic fuel?
Mrs Virginia Bottomley
The Secretary of State for Health
That is rich coming from the Labour party, which never comes clean on anything. No one yet knows where the Labour party stands on prescription charges. No one knows where it stands on sight charges. I have made the position quite clear. When it comes to manifestos, we remember that the Labour party said in its 1974 manifesto that it would cut spending on the health service, cut nurses' pay and cut doctors' pay. We have made our commitment to the health service clear. More patients now benefit from free prescriptions. The health service will continue to remain available to all, regardless of ability to pay.
Mr Ian Bruce
, South Dorset
Will my right hon. Friend confirm to the House that the rumour put about by the Labour party that NHS trust hospitals meant that those hospitals would move out of the NHS and would have to have charges was totally false? During her visit to Dorset this Friday, will she pick on any one of the hospitals in that county to visit, because she will find that every single one is an NHS trust which has no charges whatsoever in it?
Mrs Virginia Bottomley
The Secretary of State for Health
I look forward to my visit to Dorset. I can confirm my hon. Friend's remarks. The idea of national health service trusts opting out of the health service and charging for services is completely ridiculous. It is the case that in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and Portugal and New Zealand people are charged for hospital care. The British health service will remain available to all, regardless of means.
David Blunkett
Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee
As the much-vaunted Cabinet health committee did not meet and has not considered the imposition of VAT on domestic fuel Bills and its impact on the housebound, the elderly and children, how can we possibly believe any of the words used by the Secretary of State for Health who, clearly, has no impact on, or power over, the decisions of her Cabinet colleagues? How can we believe a single pledge from the Tory party's manifesto or the promises given by Conservative Members, in view of what they have done to those most in need by the imposition of that tax on fuel bills?
Mrs Virginia Bottomley
The Secretary of State for Health
It is positively bizarre that the hon. Gentleman has tried to steer the conversation away from health. Clearly, it is because Opposition Members have no health policy. We have been waiting almost a year for a health statement from the Labour party. I imagine that the delay is because the home policy committee of the Labour party, chaired by Tom Sawyer, has not yet consulted its trade union members on what the health policy might be.
All that I know is that we have delivered and beaten our commitments on health. Waiting times are down and services have been developed and we will continue to do just that.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
A proposal for new legislation that is debated by Parliament.
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
A group of workers who have united to promote their common interests.
The Opposition are the political parties in the House of Commons other than the largest or Government party. They are called the Opposition because they sit on the benches opposite the Government in the House of Commons Chamber. The largest of the Opposition parties is known as Her Majesty's Opposition. The role of the Official Opposition is to question and scrutinise the work of Government. The Opposition often votes against the Government. In a sense the Official Opposition is the "Government in waiting".
