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Health and Education

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Up to now, the Opposition have sought to suggest that they are as dearly attached to the NHS as the Labour party, abandoning their patient passport scheme, on which every single Opposition Member was elected. They have sought to say that they will invest more. The hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire got into trouble in February for saying that his party would put £28 billion into the NHS. Now we know that it is going to spend less overall and less on public services. We know from the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond), the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, that it will spend less on the NHS. We have not heard it from the lips of the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire, so I would be perfectly willing to accept an intervention from him, as we need to know whether the Opposition will match our spending in 2010-11. [Interruption.] Okay, he does not wish to do so. The constitution that we published alongside the NHS next stage review set out the key principles and values of the NHS, reaffirming our commitment to a service for all our people, with the finest medical treatment available, based on need, not on wealth. It enshrines the rights and responsibilities of patients and staff, bringing together existing legal rights with pledges and commitments about the standards of service that the NHS will provide. It establishes patients' legal right to choose where they are treated for certain services, and it sets out a patient's right to all NICE-recommended drugs and treatments. The health Bill will place a legal duty on the NHS, its regulators and any independent or voluntary sector bodies that provide NHS services to have regard to the constitution. It will also commit the Government to renewing the constitution every 10 years. I believe that by building on the solid foundation established over the past 11 years, the NHS constitution and the measures that we have set out in the Gracious Speech will accelerate further progress, improve quality and intensify the focus on prevention. That will further enhance the huge progress made in health and education, and I commend the Gracious Speech to the House.