Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Government admits spending figures 'wrong for the past four years'

Yesterday in Parliament, as is usual on the last day, a ton of Ministerial statements is pumped out. My favourite is one from the Department of Health that issued a correction to written answers provided to the following MPs on the given dates in the matter of the cost of advertising spending in the NHS.
  • Ann Coffey on 23 June 2009;
  • Mr. Stephen O’Brien on 21 April 2009
  • Mr. Don Foster on 5 November 2008
  • Sir Nicholas Winterton on 4 November 2008
  • Mr. Mike Penning in 22 October 2008
  • Sir Peter Soulsby on 15 July 2008
  • Mr. Mark Hoban on 3 April 2008
  • Mr. David Simpson on 25 February 2008
  • Mr. Norman Lamb on 5 February 2008
  • Sandra Gidley on 25 January 2008
  • Mr. Mark Simmonds on 3 December 2007
  • Sandra Gidley on 19 July 2007
  • Mrs. Theresa May on 25 June 2007
  • Mr. Lansley on 4 June 2007
  • Mr. Mike Penning on 17 April 2007
  • Mr. Lansley on 15 January 2007
  • Mr. Swire on 6 December 2006
  • Mr. Lansley on 8 November 2006
  • Mr. Hayes on 19 July 2006
  • Justine Greening on 5 June 2006
  • Mr. David T.C. Davies on 28 March 2006
  • Mr. Weir on 28 March 2006
  • Anne Milton on 20 March 2006
  • Mr. Andrew Turner on 7 July 2005
  • Mr. Burstow on 7 July 2005
So baically for the last four years they've been consistently giving out the wrong figures. It will come as no surprise that a quick comparison shows that the figures originally given are more often than not less than the new corrected figures (below).

Click Image for Larger Version

Bad news buried, bad news dug up. Can we believe a word Brown ever says on spending when they admit things like this?

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