HC Deb 09 December 1957 vol 579 cc898-9
44. Mr. D. Howell

asked the Minister of Health whether he will make a statement upon the Government's policy in relation to the report of Sir Noel Hall upon conditions and salaries in the National Health Service.

Mr. Walker-Smith

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and I will consider the recommendations of the Whitley Council on the report on their merits and in the light of all the circumstances at the time we receive them. We shall, of course, have to take into account the expense to the taxpayer. But we shall in this case be able to base revaluation on a careful review of structure and grading. It would therefore be quite wrong to assume that the Government will feel themselves precluded by their present policy from giving effect to such a revaluation and any associated adjustment of salary scales.

Mr. Howell

Is the Minister aware that that reply just about backs every horse in the race and that at any future date he can produce any change of policy to suit what he is saying? Is this not most unsatisfactory? Sir Noel Hall was asked to make this investigation following the Guillebaud Report, which was really forthright about the shocking conditions of service within the Service. Will the Minister therefore kindly tell us whether he will or will not accept the Report, which, as he says, has been carefully and systematically combing the National Health Service?

Mr. Walker-Smith

Obviously, we cannot commit ourselves in advance before we know what will result from the present discussions in the Whitley Council. What comes before my right hon. Friend and myself is not the Report itself, but the recommendations which will emerge from the present deliberations of the Whitley Council.

Dr. Summerskill

In view of the importance of the Health Service and the necessity to maintain harmony among the workers in it, does the Minister not think that he should tell them specifically whether he intends to veto future recommendations and which categories he intends to pick out to veto?

Mr. Walker-Smith

I do not think that any such hypothetical approach would be useful. If the right hon. Lady and others concerned will be good enough to study the text of the Answer I have given to the hon. Member for All Saints (Mr. D. Howell), they will see the position quite clearly set out.

Mr. Peyton

Would my right hon. Friend agree that when it comes to backing all the horses the party opposite are easy winners, in that, though they profess not to like inflation, they are absolutely unwilling to do anything about it?

Mr. Walker-Smith

I think that, quite apart from metaphors, there is, as my hon. Friend suggests, a clear inconsistency in the attitude of hon. Members opposite.