Anthony Bevins Political Editor examines a scathing audit of safety on the wards

Anthony Bevins, Political Editor, examines a scathing audit of safety on the wards. “Hospitals are dangerous places,” David Davis, Conservative chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said last night.
“There are dangers for staff, for patients and for visitors. The simple fact is that the levels of accidents are too high. Health and safety legislation is there to protect people, but it is being blatantly ignored.”Evidence given to the MPs showed that patients in the Royal Liverpool Hospital were nine times more likely to have an accident than patients in the South Manchester University Teaching Hospital.When hospitals were asked to report on the action they had taken to cure the problem, the Carlisle Hospitals NHS Trust said, among other things, that it had “amended cleaning procedures to prevent high level of slips in corridors”. Most people still do not realise that some personal pension plans offer a very good deal to all their plan holders, while others provide an appalling deal to many, and sometimes most, of their customers. It is not just the published charges which eat up the benefits, John Chapman explains. “It has now emerged that he even kept the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury in the dark about the nature of his offshore family trust in Guernsey.”The shadow Chancellor said he had asked Sir Terry in a letter last week how much Mr Robinson had told him.”Did Sir Terry know that the Orion Trust had been involved in complicated share transactions with Mr Robinson’s company, Stenbell Limited?”Did Sir Terry know that the Orion Trust now owns a significant stake in Mr Robinson’s former company, TransTec?”Sir Terry’s reply confirms that he was not made aware of these important – and highly relevant – matters.”Mr Lilley has written again to Sir Terry, asking if he would now revise his advice to the minister “in the light of the facts that have now come to light”..

I acted in accordance with the ministerial code and on the advice of the Treasury Permanent Secretary.”Mr Lilley claimed, however, that Sir Terry’s letter indicated he had not known all the details of the affair. “Over the past few days, it has become clear that the Paymaster General has been economical with the truth in public statements about his personal financial arrangements,” he said. He insists that he has no say over the handling of the trust – as is the case now with the blind trust containing his personal holdings.Mr Robinson commented later: “Sir Terry Burns completely vindicated me. During the course of the discussion the Paymaster General told me of the existence of a family trust. Since this vehicle already existed, and offered similar protection to that provided by a blind trust, there was no reason to consider it further.”Sir Terry’s reference to “protection” is an allusion to Mr Robinson’s relationship to the Orion Trust set up by his Belgian friend. It says: “My discussions with the Paymaster General about his financial interests focused on his beneficial holdings and my advice to him was that it would be appropriate to transfer them to a blind trust, which is what happened.

The comments by Sir Terry Burns, Permanent Secretary, come in a letter to the shadow Chancellor, Peter Lilley, in a response to queries about Mr Robinson’s position.
Controversy flared when it emerged that Mr Robinson was the discretionary beneficiary of an offshore trust established by a Belgian friend who has since died.Sir Terry’s letter refers first to Mr Robinson’s personal holdings – worth at least pounds 18m. The Treasury’s top civil servant has insisted that the Paymaster General, Geoffrey Robinson, acted correctly in the handling of his financial affairs. The view of the Committee was that for as long as the smoking of tobacco products was legal, then it was acceptable for the Department’s outlets to sell cigarettes.”. The offending items came to light when Bob Russell, Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester, asked the chairman of the catering committee in a written question whether he would “take steps to discourage sales” of the cigarettes.
Dennis Turner, Labour MP for Wolverhampton SE, replied: “It would be very unusual if a chairman of the Catering Committee sought to discourage the sale and consumption of items sold as gifts and souvenirs from the Refreshment Department outlets …

The Government has faced heavy flak for seeming to have softened its stance on the issue of tobacco sponsorship. But it should be grateful that critics failed to notice the smoke signals closer to home. For as ministers thrash out whether tobacco sponsorship encourages people to smoke, the Government has come under fire for failing to ban sales of its own House of Commons branded cigarettes. But the Oxfam spokesman said that government figures presented only half the picture, because they related to military equipment. Police equipment, which could also be used for repression, was not included.Opening a campaign with advertisements in some newspapers today – showing a child with a gun, and the message “Dear Santa, Please don’t send me a gun this Christmas” – Oxfam said that current regulations were still too weak.It urged the Government during its six-month presidency of the European Union, from January, “to agree a genuinely tough EU-wide code of conduct on arms exports to prevent arms going to repressive regimes”.The spokesman said the Charity Commission had ruled that charities were allowed to become involved in political campaigning, such as the landmines campaign, where the issues involved were “pertinent” to their work.”If we are to stop small arms falling into small hands, then a vital part of the solution is for both British and EU arms sales to be regulated by a far tougher code of conduct than the Government appears committed to,” Diana Mel- rose, head of policy at Oxfam, said.Oxfam has discovered, according to the latest analysis of export licences, that a “worrying” number have been agreed for countries where there is a strong risk of weaponry being used against civilians – including Turkey, Indonesia, Algeria, Colombia and Nigeria.. “This flies in the face of the criteria,” an Oxfam spokesman said yesterday.

“In practice, what is happening is not the same as Mr Cook is saying.”
Oxfam’s analysis suggested that since Labour took office in May, there have been 22 arms export licences issued for Indonesia – half of them since Mr Cook issued his new regulations.According to Margaret Beckett, President of the Board of Trade, just four applications have been rejected since the new regulations were introduced. Oxfam yesterday accused the Government of being in breach of its own guidelines on arms sales. Eleven arms export licences have been granted to Indonesia since 28 July, when Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, announced new regulations for arms sales overseas. Some ministers believe they could “sell” it on grounds that people injured and disabled at work get much more, at a maximum of around pounds 101.10 per week, according to the Social Security Department yesterday, than people identically injured and disabled in accidents at home, who receive pounds 84.10 a week, at most.. One minister said that if reform was blindly pursued, there was a danger the revolt would become incremental.The risk then would be of Mr Blair going deeper into his No 10 bunker and becoming ever more reliant on unsound advice.As for the threat of party discipline, it was a commonplace at Westminster on Thursday that Nick Brown, the Government Chief Whip, had no intention of cracking down on Wednesday night’s rebels – simply because, having been brought up by a lone mother, his heart was not in it.The Independent understands the most likely target for the next cut is industrial injuries disablement benefit, for which 265,000 claimants currently get pounds 718m a year. There is concern that if he is relying on Peter Mandelson, referred to as “minister with all portfolios”, and other members of his inner circle, he is getting out of touch.