Health Bill

No. The hon. Gentleman is very persistent, but I have already said that I will not give way, because I wish to make some progress and there are many other issues on which I anticipate hon. Members will wish to make interventions. The counter fraud service has performed a highly important job since we established it in 1998. By the end of the last financial year, it had produced a financial benefit to the NHS of £675 million, which is a 13:1 return on its total budget since 1999. The service is an important part of ensuring that we get value for money for every additional £1 of taxpayers’ money that we put into the NHS. I come to my final point before I turn to smoking. In part 5 of the Bill, we respond to an important report published in 2003 by the Public Administration Committee, which was called ““Government by Appointment””, by establishing a new non-departmental public body, the appointments commission, to replace the current NHS Appointments Commission. In the Committee’s estimation, the NHS Appointments Commission was working well and the Committee recommended that other Departments should be able to use its services. The Bill provides the legal framework to do that and reaffirms our commitment to an independent appointments process.