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Business of the House

I could have agreed with almost everything that the hon. Lady said, apart from the slightly strange suggestion that there is a pay cut. Not only are nurses being awarded—rightly, for their service to the NHS—an above-inflation pay increase, they also benefit from a range of incremental improvements in their pay every year. The real-terms increase for nurses will be quite a bit above the headline pay increase to which she refers. So the first point is that there will not be a cut. The second point is that the Government value enormously the work of nurses. That is why we have employed more than 78,000, in addition to those who were in employment, serving the health service, in 1997. Perhaps next time the hon. Lady will look at the figures a little more fairly, but I hope that she will accept that we enormously value the work of nurses and will continue to do so.