§ Mr. Spearingasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what were his reasons for requiring district health authorities to fund a proportion of nationally agreed wage awards by local economies or reductions in services.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeWage awards should normally be regarded as an integral part of the costs of health authorities along with all other costs incurred in providing the service funded from within cash limits. Health authorities have had made available to them this year £85 million growth money. In addition, they have themselves released some £100 million through cost improvement programmes. In these circumstances, we decided that health authorities could reasonably bear a part of the cost over 3 per cent. of recent pay awards although we took a step which we are unlikely to repeat of raising cash limits to meet most of that cost.