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Open Public Services White Paper

My Lords, it is a great disappointment that Southern Cross has had to go down the route that it has gone in. The noble Lord is of course aware that many providers perform excellent work and have greater safeguards in place. We do not want to take one example and judge all private providers on it. I am not quite sure that the significance of the roads question will be answered as fully as the noble Lord would like. I assume that those data are so that the public—the people who use those roads—are able to question why there is not greater improvement and how greater improvement can be brought about. It is not about avoiding roads but being able to say, ““Where judgments are to be made about mapping on those roads, how do we deliver better services? Is it about speed or variable speeds””? I suspect that that is what it is, incorporated into that response. On health premiums, it is absolutely right that those healthcare providers dealing with very difficult health issues in their areas should be given extra support and rewarded if they deliver better outcomes. It is only right that we work in partnership—sometimes with local authorities or across a range of providers. We must not put a full-stop block on this, so that we are driven by the same service that has gone on for many years and that has not delivered the sort of outcomes that we would like everyone to have—and not because they can buy it. It has to be available for everyone.