Rolling covering of all the day's political developments as they happen.
The TUC and the CBI have both sent out comments on the findings of Will Hutton's review into fair pay in the public sector. Polly Curtis has written up the report's findings in full for today's paper.
Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, is particularly keen on Hutton's suggestion that publicly limited companies should have to publish "pay multiples" - the ratio between top pay and average pay.
This review makes a range of challenging proposals for change in the public sector, including greater pay transparency at the top. But crucially it is also a welcome starting point to tackle the greatest unfairness ? boardroom excess in the private sector.It has been the growing pay gap between the boardroom and ordinary staff in the private sector that has caused mounting household debt and squeezed wages over the last 30 years, not a few well remunerated chief executives in the public sector.
Making PLCs publish pay multiples and introducing workforce representation on remuneration committees are welcome proposals that should be implemented in the budget.
But the millions of public servants facing real terms pay cuts and pension hikes will be disappointed that the review has so little to say about low pay in the public sector.
Our hope is that ministers use this report to take a closer look at fairness in pay across the public and private sectors. Failure to do this could turn it into a fruitless exercise in public sector bashing.
But the CBI isn't so keen on getting PLCs to publish "pay multiples' data. This is from Katja Hall, its chief policy director.
We must be careful about judging pay fairness by a single number, like the ratio of executive to median pay. While Hutton is right that there should be more transparency and understanding about how pay is set in the public sector, a single ratio can be misleading. Differences in the sizes and make-up of workforces lead to a variety of pay differentials based on very valid grounds.
You can read the Hutton report in full here (pdf). And here is a summary.
Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, is under fire at the moment on various fronts. He was on BBC News this morning defending himself. According to PoliticsHome, this is what he had to say.
? Lansley played down reports that two more health organisations have refused to sign up to the government's "responsibility deal" on public health. Some 170 organisations have signed up, he said.
? He claimed that cooperating with the food and drink industry on public health was delivering results.
Working together is enabling us to do more. Now, where alcohol is concerned, for example at the moment we've had only about 15% up to now of drinks having unit labelling. We think that would have got to 30 or 40% without this action. The industry is committed, by the end of of 2030 to get to 80%.
? He said that he had already changed the health bill to rule out competition on price.
The BMA was worried, they said 'Look, we don't want to be in a position - I understand this - where there is any conflict between the price that is payable to a healthcare provider, the services provider and our decision on behalf of our patients' ... We've amended [the legislation] to make it very clear that at the point, the competition in the NHS will be on the basis of quality. At the point where patients choose, GPs refer patients, they will do so between a range of providers who will have the same price paid to them, so the competition, the decision that is made by everybody within the NHS, will be on the basis of quality.
Things may change, of course, but at the moment it looks as if it's going to be a relatively humdrum day on the politics front. Here are the items in the diary.
9am: Lady Neville-Jones, the security minister, gives a speech at a RUSI conference on terrorism.
10am: The British Medical Association holds an emergency meeting to discuss the government's health reform plans. "We want to put more pressure on the government to change what are flawed and very risky proposals for the NHS," Dr Hamish Meldrum, the BMA chairman, told the BBC earlier.
10am: Peter Luff, the defence minister, and Bernard Gray, head of MoD procurement, speak at the Defence Academy.
10.30am: Sir David Nicholson, chief executive of the NHS, gives evidence to the Commons public accounts committee about NHS trust procurement.
11am: The People's Pledge launches its campaign for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.
11.45am: Kenneth Clarke, the justice secretary, publishes the draft defamation bill.
2.15pm: The OECD launches an economic survey of the UK.
2.30pm: Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, gives evidence to a Commons committee on electricity market reform.
As usual, I'll be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I'll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm, and an afternoon one at about 4pm.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2011/mar/15/kenneth-clarke-health
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