What recent assessment he has made of the effects on the economy of his Department's policy of bringing forward spending on capital projects.

Bringing forward capital spending is part of a response to the recession that is now supporting up to half a million jobs, helping 300,000 people stay in their homes and helping 150,000 businesses with their cash flow. We forecast that these measures will return us to growth by the end of the year.

Advancing building programmes is also good news for us in our constituencies, but what can we do to encourage hospital trusts that do not have access to capital funds and that rely on their surpluses to advance their programmes and create jobs and construction programmes earlier?

We are very proud of the fact that under this Government, the national health service now has 100 new hospitals, which have been built through the increases in capital expenditure. That means that the NHS estate is now in a completely different shape. We plan capital spending to continue at different kinds of levels in the future, but even by 2013-14 we expect capital expenditure to be higher than the levels we inherited. Of course, there will be trusts around the country that will also choose to use the different flexibilities that they have, such as the private finance initiative or internally generated resources, but our determination to carry on with the business of modernising the NHS is undiminished.

Will the Minister consider using capital expenditure to reduce the debt on the Humber bridge? In particular, will the Treasury agree to carry out its own analysis of the economic impact of the tolls on the local area and on the Exchequer, and match the promise made by my hon. Friend Mr. Osborne?

I will certainly be happy to consider evidence such as that the hon. Gentleman mentioned and any other evidence that he would like to bring forward.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that at a recent meeting of the Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Committee, representatives of the CBI, the chambers of commerce, the Engineering Employers Federation-the EEF-and the Federation of Small Businesses all welcomed the Government's stimulus package, including the bringing forward of capital projects? They said that although the economy recovery has started to happen-

Order. There is pressure on time and we must make progress. I want a question with a question mark-one sentence please.

Those organisations questioned whether it was right to withdraw the stimulus package now and whether doing that would have a disastrous effect on economic recovery.

As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor said, the fiscal stimulus that we have been able to put in place, because we went into this recession with low levels of debt, together with low interest rates, is now supporting up to 500,000 jobs. The disastrous thing to do would be to withdraw that stimulus too quickly. The Conservative party has set its face against a fiscal stimulus and it is for early withdrawal of that stimulus, which would be such a disaster for our economy.