Many MPs are making money for themselves by selling-off our National Health Service to private companies.
Privatisation means that public funds are used to pay for private sector provision of NHS services. This means taxpayers’ money is going into the profits of companies and their shareholders instead of into patient care.
The Department of Health’s annual accounts for 2013-14 showed £10bn-worth of NHS business went to other providers. It’s rising by about £1bn every year and needs to be stopped. If MPs are banned from having investments in these companies, they will be less supportive of further privatisation, and maybe the NHS can be saved.
Please sign my petition to the Commons Select Committee on Standards (the people who make rules for MPs), demanding that MPs be banned from investing in private healthcare companies.
Since the Health and Social Care Act passed, over 70% of tendered contracts have been awarded to the private sector, amounting to over £13 billion worth of NHS services falling into private hands. From lobbying links to investments and in some cases direct donations, 71 MPs who voted for the NHS sell-off had links to the very private healthcare companies which stood to profit.
For example, while preparing the white paper that led to the act, Andrew Lansley (then health secretary) received £21,000 from the chairman of private healthcare company Care UK. In 2013, 96% of Care UK’s business, amounting to over £400,000,000, came from the NHS.
This is a clear conflict of interest. Although the Code of Conduct for MPs specifies that private investments such as these must be declared, the general public is often not aware of this information. Transparency does not change the fact that many MPs currently benefit from the privatisation of the NHS. They need to be stopped from having those investments in the first place. MPs salaries are enough.
Sources: Unite the Union and National Health Action Party.
Update #29 years ago
The Committee on Standards has responded to say, "The rules themselves are set by the House of Commons on recommendation of the Committee on Standards, after review by the Parliamentary Commissioner" and advised that we send the petition to the House of Commons via the Petitions Committee. As such, I've now emailed the petition to the Petitions Committee!
Update #19 years ago
Just to let you know, I emailed this to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and the Commons Select Committee on Standards back in March. The Commissioner responded and confirmed that the Committee on Standards was the appropriate target. However, the latter never responded, so today I have emailed them again to let them know almost 17,000 people are waiting for a response. Feel free to email them yourself too at standards@parliament.uk.
