Claire Perry and the NHS budget

In a tweet yesterday Claire Perry MP wrote: “Last time I looked we were increasing spending on the NHS unlike Labour who refused to protect it.”

The NHS budget for 2011-2012 went down 0.02 per cent on the previous year – or up by 0.09 per cent depending on which month’s ‘GDP deflators’ you use. The term ‘GDP deflators’ means a lot to bankers.

Why choose 2011-2012?  Because that is the year which saw the head of the UK Statistics Authority having to referee a government-versus-opposition clash over the size of the NHS budget.  He said real terms NHS spending was lower for 2011-2012 than for 2009-2010.

But when 2011-2012 was over the Department of Health handed one billion pounds back to the Treasury.  That year also saw most of the £2-3 billion Lansley reorganisation costs come out of the NHS budget.

(£1.9 billion was handed back after 2010-2011 and another £2.2 billion is scheduled to go back to the Treasury from the 2012-2013 budget.)

Mrs Perry’s tweet was in response to a lady who sent her a photo of a Daily Mirror front page: “Revealed: Tory donors’ £1.5bn NHS contracts.”