Part of Orders of the Day — National Health Service (Primary Care) Bill [Lords] – in the House of Commons am 9:42 pm ar 12 Mawrth 1997.
Hugh Bayley
NATO Parliamentary Assembly UK Delegation
9:42,
12 Mawrth 1997
It is in the nature of our debates to emphasise our differences, because we debate the parts of a Bill on which we disagree. In this debate on the Bill's Third Reading, I should like to say that I support its basic principle, which holds out the prospects of innovation, of new service patterns and—should Ministers desire to do so—of targeting resources on areas with considerable unmet health care need, thereby tackling inequalities. Although the current Government may not implement the Bill to achieve those objectives, I am sure that a Labour Government would.
My single greatest reservation on the Bill is the extent to which it leaves open the door to commercialising services. That is a serious flaw in the Bill but I anticipate that in a few weeks' time the current Minister for Health will be on this side of the House and my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich (Ms Jowell) will be at the Government Dispatch Box. If that happens after the General Election—[Interruption.]
If you've ever seen inside the Commons, you'll notice a large table in the middle - upon this table is a box, known as the dispatch box. When members of the Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet address the house, they speak from the dispatch box. There is a dispatch box for the government and for the opposition. Ministers and Shadow Ministers speak to the house from these boxes.
In a general election, each constituency chooses an MP to represent it by process of election. The party who wins the most seats in parliament is in power, with its leader becoming Prime Minister and its Ministers/Shadow Ministers making up the new Cabinet. If no party has a majority, this is known as a hung Parliament. The next general election will take place on or before 3rd June 2010.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
