Skipper

A legal ruling on the recent Health Act has senationally dismissed its vailidity. The government has consistently opposed the publication of the 'risk register'compiled to evaluate the risks attaching to the Health Act. A Tribunal was established to hear an appeal lodged by John healey MP and para 85 of its recent ruling, in language unusual for a legal ruling, slammed the whole provenance of the NHS reforms as shown below.

"From the evidence it is clear that the NHS reforms were introduced in an exceptional way. There was no indication prior to the White Paper that such wide-ranging reforms were being considered. The White Paper was published without prior consultation. It was published within a very short period after the Coalition Government came into power. It was unexpected. Consultation took place afterwards over what appears to us a very short period considering the extent of the proposed reforms. The consultation hardly changed policy but dealt largely with implementation. Even more significantly the Government decided to press ahead with some of the policies even before laying a Bill before Parliament. The whole process had to be paused because of the general alarm at what was happening”

This rling suggests the whole enterprise of reforming the NHS was possibly illegitimate and certainly adds to the imoression of a government which is incompetent and bungling beyond even the standards set by Gordon Brown's final undistinguished period in Number 10. For more on this see here.