Member News
The government faced criticism from all sides on yesterday over its policies to tackle health inequalities.
In a Westminster Hall debate on the health select committee's report on the issue, the committee chairman Kevin Barron (Lab, Rother Valley), said that "insufficient thought and a lack of clear objectives" had made meaningful evaluation of the government's policy initiatives "practically impossible".
Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats also focused on this issue.
The Conservative spokesman, Peter Bone (Wellingborough) said that the government were more than willing to invest in ideas, but had no way of establishing or measuring whether they were good ideas or not.
Norman Lamb (North Norfolk) for the Liberal Democrats highlighted the report's conclusion that the government seemed to have learned nothing from past mistakes in this area.
The Department of Health minister responding, Gillian Merron, made little reference to these criticisms, instead choosing to focus on other aspects of the discussion, such as whether Sure Start centres should be specifically targeting the most deprived children in communities – a point raised by other contributors to the debate.
She disagreed with this analysis, saying that the inclusive nature of the centres ensured that not stigma was attached to poorer people attending them – a point rebutted by Norman Lamb on the basis that to reduce inequality, you must concentrate on those who need the help most.
The issue of the recently-banned tobacco vending machines was raised by a somewhat irritated Conservative Mike Penning (Hemel Hempstead).
He accused the government of deciding to introduce the ban into the Health Bill at the last minute.
The minister "gently advised" Penning that it may be time for him to accept the will of the House on this issue.
The debate ended with Kevin Barron raising the concerns expressed on all sides about the new formula for funding allocations to primary care trusts.
The formula itself was widely welcomed, but the government was once again criticised, this time for failure to fully implement the policy which all sides felt would be extremely beneficial.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.