---

Health and Education

I beg to move,"As an Amendment to the Address, at end add 'but regret the absence of measures in the Gracious Speech to deliver reforms which would make public services genuinely accountable to patients and parents; believe that the measures proposed offer no prospect of raising long-term productivity or value for money in public services; object to the absence of measures to reduce bureaucracy; regret the failure to abolish centrally-dictated targets and support public services focused on outcomes; note the lack of commitment to improve public health and outcomes to reduce health inequalities; regret the failure to provide patients with meaningful information to improve local accountability; deplore the failure to bring forward proposals on social care; further regret the lack of measures to break the link between poverty and educational achievement and to raise standards in literacy; call for proposals to tackle the United Kingdom's declining position in international education league tables and to give pupils in state schools the opportunity to sit the best examinations; note the lack of proposals to ensure higher standards of child protection; further regret the absence of measures to reverse the decline of science and to make schools accountable to parents rather than bureaucrats; and seek long-term reform of public services rather than short-term palliatives.'." Interestingly, in his speech last Wednesday at the commencement of these debates, the Prime Minister sought to upstage the Queen's Speech itself. It was not hard to do; we knew the Queen's Speech would be thin, but it turned out to be skeletal. I do not object to having fewer Bills—