§ 7. Mr. GallowayTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will meet the chairman of the Greater Glasgow health board to discuss the provision of health care in the Glasgow area.
§ Mr. LangI and my right hon. and noble Friend the Minister responsible for health matters meet health board chairmen from time to time, and expect to meet the chairman of Greater Glasgow health board in due course to discuss health matters in Glasgow.
§ Mr. GallowayWhen the Secretary of State meets the new man, when will he be able to give him any assurance that he will not fall victim to the same Watergate-style skulduggery described by the Secretary of State's distinguished predecessor, Lord Younger, as being the fate of Mr. Bill Fyfe—the departing chairman of Greater Glasgow health board? How much longer can the Secretary of State pretend that he and other Ministers had no knowledge of the grisly details of that affair, when Scotland on Sunday revealed last Sunday that on 6 and 30 August, and in October this year, the right hon. Gentleman's most senior and trusted advisers were intervening in the matter? Will the Secretary of State answer here and now the classic Watergate question: what did Ministers know about the Fyfe-Peterken affair and when did they know it?
§ Mr. LangI suppose that the hon. Gentleman is an expert in skulduggery but I have no doubt that the appointment of Sir Robert Calderwood as the new chairman of Greater Glasgow health board—which has been widely welcomed—will be extremely successful. I can tell the hon. Gentleman also that I have looked into the matter and I am satisfied that Mr. Fyfe was told repeatedly that he could not and should not seek to terminate Mr. Peterken's employment and make the offer of a financial settlement to him. I have to conclude that Mr. Fyfe was the architect of his own downfall.
§ Mr. David MarshallWhile the Government fiddle the health service, is the Secretary of State aware that many thousands of people in the Greater Glasgow health board area are on the waiting list for treatment? Is he aware, for example, that one of my teenage constituents was told just last week that he would have to wait two and a half years for necessary dental treatment at Glasgow dental hospital? When will the Secretary of State start putting patient care before Tory party political cover-ups and jobs for his supporters?
§ Mr. LangThe budget for Greater Glasgow health board has been increased in the current year by 2.1 per cent. in real terms. That is a substantial increase, and I shall be announcing further increases later. The waiting list for long-term patients has fallen from 13.3 per cent. in June 1991 to 9.4 per cent. in 1993, so considerable progress in shortening waiting lists, especially for those with long waits, has been made.
§ Mr. WallaceWhen did the Secretary of state become aware of the terms of the letter dated 6 August which was sent to the Treasury by the acting chief executive of the health service in Scotland, who is answerable to the Secretary of State? Did that letter state that the Secretary of State no longer had confidence in Mr. Peterken? If so, did it represent the Secretary of State's view? If not, what action has been taken against a senior official who so grossly misrepresented the Secretary of State's view?
§ Mr. LangI first became aware of the letter on 23 November. It did not say that I had lost confidence in Mr. 305 Peterken. I had not, and I still have not, lost confidence in Mr. Peterken. The letter was between officials in my Department and officials in the Treasury.
§ Mr. George RobertsonDoes the Secretary of State appreciate that his total silence on this scandal in the Greater Glasgow health board over the past five weeks is both significant and deeply suspicious? Does he seriously expect people to believe that Mr. Bill Fyfe was having meetings throughout 1993 to discuss getting rid of Laurence Peterken—meetings which included the Secretary of State's solicitor and the director of personnel in the Scottish Office—and that a senior official, believed to be the acting chief executive of the national health service in Scotland, wrote a letter to the Treasury on 6 August asking for approval for a £200,000 pay-off for Mr. Peterken? Does the Secretary of State expect us to believe that neither he nor the Minister knew anything at all about that?
Who is telling the truth in this sordid tale: Bill Fyfe—the Secretary of State's personal nominee last year for running this giant quango with all the documentary evidence that he has to back him—or Ministers of the Crown, with whom ultimate responsibility for this shambles lies? They cannot both be telling the truth. Surely it is time that Ministers acted with the honour and decency that used to go with high office in this country.
§ Mr. LangI welcome the decision of the Select Committee on Scottish Affairs to investigate this matter and I look forward to the publication of its report. I have also instructed the chief executive of the management executive to carry out an inquiry into the events surrounding the dismissal of the general manager of the Greater Glasgow health board. That inquiry is not yet complete, but a report will be published. I say to the hon. Gentleman—and I say it more in sorrow than in anger—that when I heard him comparing the resignation of the chairman of Greater Glasgow health board, who had lost the confidence of his non-executive board members, with 25 years of carnage, murder and terrorism in Northern Ireland, I thought that the hon. Gentleman was plumbing the depths of bad taste.