Key Facts of interests in healthcare


The research looking into Lords and MPs connections to private healthcare through the register of interests is complete. Below are listed some of the key findings. Research into the murky and dangerous Health and Social Care bill is ongoing and more facts will be added here as and when they arise. 




  • 225 parliamentarians have recent or present financial private healthcare connections
  • 145 Lords have recent or present financial connections to companies or individuals involved in healthcare
  • 124 Peers benefit from the financial services sector
  • 1 in 4 Conservative Peers have recent or present financial connections to companies or individuals involved in healthcare
  • 1 in 6 Labour Peers have recent or present financial connections to companies or individuals involved in healthcare
  • 1 in 6 Crossbench Peers have recent or present financial connections to companies or individuals involved in healthcare
  • 1 in 10 Liberal Democrat Peers have recent or present financial connections to companies or individuals involved in healthcare
  • 75 MPs have recent or present financial links to companies or individuals involved in private healthcare
  • 81% of these are Conservative
  • 4 Key members of the Associate Parliamentary Health Group have parliamentarians with financial connections to companies or individuals involved in healthcare
  • 4 Patrons of the pro-reform think tank 2020health have Peers with private healthcare links
  • Nearly 40% of the most powerful individuals in healthcare are from companies with links to Lords and MPs.
  • 4 MPs and 1 Lord have worked for Huntsworth Health, run by a Peer who gave money to Cameron’s leadership campaign
  • 25 of the Finalists in the HealthInvestors Awards 2012 have parliamentarians connected to them
  • 2 companies, DACBeachcroft, Cumberlege Connections, which have Lords as a partner and as an owner respectively, moved themselves into a position to make money from the reforms as the Lords voted on the bill, and before the bill became Act
  • 5 organisations link to Baroness Cumberlege: Her company, Cumberlege Connections, Associate Parliamentary Health Group, 2020health, Huntsworth plc, MJM, healthcare solutions
  • 19 Lords and MPs have financial links to Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline
  • 9 Lords and MPs have received payment from a company run by Baroness Cumberlege, called Cumberlege Connections, which is a healthcare training and political networking company
  • 1 – the amount of times the BBC challenged Andrew Lansley in the last three years on his donation received to fund his private office when shadow health minister from John Nash the chairman of Care UK. Mr Nash was made a Lord.
  • All were able to vote on the Health and Social Care bill (now Act), despite having a prejudicial interest, which would not have been allowed at local council level


25 comments:

  1. Just come back to UK after 15 years in USA. The NHS is not perfect and certainly needs overhauling but people here have no idea what life would be like under an American-style private healthcare system.

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    1. Well that is exactly what the Nasty Party is trying to introduce, I found when I was in the States that waiting for my disability hearing I was entitled to State aid, food stamps, a little cash and fee medical treatment, of course different States have different rules and some have no free medical at all, what we need is for NI contributions to be used for Social Security and NHS NOT for the latest Minister to furnish their home or worse still to fund AND furnish their second home.

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    2. the argument that it is worse somewhere else doesn't really convince me that we should stand by while fat, greedy MPs and Lords pass bills simply to make themselves richer and fatter.

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    3. Sadly that is the very direction this conservative government is taking us in

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  2. Foreigners coming to Great Britain ARE given free health care. The amount of paperwork involved in dealing with them, together with the "free healthcare" ethos means that millions and millions of pounds worth of services and medication is NOT being charged for.

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  3. So, thats y their so desperate 2 privatise it against the peoples wishes & deliberately let foreigners abuse our system so, they can try & justify what their doing. No one voted them in 2 do anything 2 the NHS. The people want it & its theirs. This corrupt bunch of greedy, grubby, money-grabbing parasites r out 2 fatten their bank accounts!

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  4. Stop bringing foreigners into it people! A foreigner getting treatment isn't "abusing the system" they're simply someone who has got sick and like any of us thought "I'd better get help." And if they're not asked for money, then of course they're not going to pay for it, just like any of us. Don't blame people like us who just want free health care. Blame those at the top who are lining each other's pockets and making millions while gradually reducing what is available on the NHS.

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    1. exactly, it's nothing to do with who gets treated or how, it's to do with who makes money out of that treatment. The NHS is paid for by taxes, that money should go to doctors and nurses, not private firms owned by MPs and Lords. They simply sit on the board of some service providing company and syphon all the money out of the system so the service gets worse and they get richer. Sick, greedy, self serving.

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  5. Private companies running healthcare would be a disaster. Greedy MP's, their fat cat mates & so on & so forth are only in it for the money. Yes maybe things need to change alittle but this is certainly not the correct way! If they can 'sell off' pallative childrens care to private companies so the said companies can profit from the care for poorly children they need sacking. Cant people see what is happening. If you are lucky enough not to be ill then good for you. Life is extremely precious and one unfortunate incident could leave you with long term care. Imagine if you have to go to 1 private company for 1 thing, another company elsewhere for something else, somewhere different for something else. Anything complex and youll be snookered! Its not going to work. Patients will die, receive worse care than ever.....all so the rich get richer. It makes my blood boil!

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  6. A phenomenal piece of investigation. One wonders why it hasn't appeared in a national newspaper? Maybe one like the "Sun" which likes to trumpet how much it "stands up for your interests" (he says sarcastically LOL) .... though maybe not. Sadly I have given up on the UK - completely. The one unchangeable FACT to understand - and the RIGHT WING have only too clearly - is there is absolutely NOTHING, NOTHING the British people care enough to fight for other than the uninterrupted supply of a TV signal to their houses. Charging to educate their children .... who cares ..... GCHQ spying .... couldn't give a damn .... No jobs for anyone or young people .... the same .... Endless outsourcing of jobs to make a quick buck ..... snooze ...... massive rewards for directors and wage cuts for workers ...... snore ...... deliberate prolonging of the recession to redistribute wealth to the rich .... the same .... tax avoidance by companies and the rich ....yawn ..... financial scandal after financial scandal .... asleep ..... the privatisation of the education system with 60% of secondary schools now academies) ....don't wake me up. The TV, the newspapers working hand in hand (the Guardian excepted) with their wealthy ruling elite friends to distribute propaganda, deceive the electorate and ensure complete ignorance of the corruption of our society. Worldwide, the US excepted of course, people in democratic societies have got off their backsides and protested. Here .....not a word. Nothing. If the UK were in Eastern Europe we'd still be under a communist government. Local elections - 85% can't be bothered to vote, national elections in some areas and age groups less than 30% bother. The rich invest vast amounts of time and money in getting the right political result. The rest, a heroic few as here apart, invest neither time nor money nor effort - practical or intellectual. Democracy lives or dies by participation. If 95% refuse to get involved it withers. The rich participate, boy oh boy do they participate. Who, paradoxically, are the better democrats? Apart from the fact that I love our NHS which remains our pride and joy and amongst the best in the world - the sole remaining fatted calve the private sector haven't milked yet - it's hard to think other than the British people deserve everything that happens to them. They certainly have the government they deserve. Decisions really ARE taken by those who show up and the 95% in the country don't. Where to now?

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    1. "...it's hard to think other than the British people deserve everything that happens to them..." Hear, hear.

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    2. You seem to have summed the situation up from a realistic view point and I am afraid I have to agree Anon

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  7. I learned 50 years ago, the one group of people you canna trust to tell the truth are: PARLIAMENTARIANS. Anonymous: Tell us, WHO we can vote for, as they are ALL a bunch of liars, Hypocrites, thieves.

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  8. In the NHS 'foreigners' are known as 'overseas visitors' and when they are identified as such they are interviewed to determine if they should pay or not. The governments have reciprocal agreements with many countries throughout the world, where we don't pay if taken ill overseas. So they don't need to pay and that's OK. If the overseas visitor is identified as not being from one of these countries (eg USA) then they do pay. This applies to anyone taken ill during their stay in the UK. I know this as I work for the NHS and have been involved in the annual claim for payback from reciprocal countries (eg any country in the EU). So stop thinking the NHS is being duped into paying for foreigners without recalim.

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    1. Well said Stephanie. Unfortunately these are the facts that you will never read in the tabloid press.

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  9. I wont be voting for any party that has any MP's who stand to gain from selling the NHS

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  10. Politics are out of our hands and I think out of the Politicians hands also

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  11. BROKEN BRITISH POLITICS – LANSLEY LEADER OF THE HOUSE – IN WHAT THEFT & DECEIT
    Are the Tories a Bunch of Crooks - this post is non Politically Biased or Based on Heresay .
    LANSLEY’S Morals and Ethics are a lot to be desired .From 2004 to 2010 he was the Tory Shadow secretary for Health in his post he developed policies centred on using choice to improve the National Health Service.
    Until December 2009 Lansley received £134 an hour from a firm of advertisers that represented clients such as Walkers Crisps, McDonald's, Unilever, Mars and Pizza Hut as well as accepting a donation of £21,000 from a private healthcare provider Care UK .
    Lansley's wife, Sally Low, is the managing director of Low Associates it helps people prepare before they give evidence to committees of MPs she denies Low Associates is involved in lobbying .
    He was the author of a chapter in The Future of the NHS Wikipedia refuses to list it as appears to be written like an advertisement.
    He claimed expenses for his second home a rural cottage, after renovating it for resale .
    He has recently claimed £6000 in Hotel Expenses whilst only being in walking distance of Parliament.
    61113 NHS posts will have gone by 2015 under Lansley’s Reforms .He has been at the forefront of two Controversial Bills the Health and Social Care Bill and the Gagging Law both have been passed helped along one might say by a conflicting interested party .
    On 13 April 2011, 96 per cent of 497 delegates at the Royal College of Nursing conference backed a motion of no confidence questioning Andrew Lansley's handling of NHS reforms in England. On 28 June 2012, doctors meeting at a British Medical Association conference voted in favour of calling for Andrew Lansley's resignation Doctors voted in agreement of a motion stating "This meeting has no confidence in Andrew Lansley .Two men have caused upheaval to this Country ID Smith is Demolishing the Welfare State and A Lansley has virtually sold off the NHS both by Lies and Deceit.
    http://brokenbritishpolitics.simplesite.com

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  12. http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/investigate-and-prosecute-all-mp-s-and-lords-suspected-of-fraud

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  13. You all miss the point corruption and greed rule its a lawless Uk for the crimanals that work in parliment and the house of so called Lords, which to me the word Lord only belongs to the one above not these crooks.

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  14. years where no one listen to the peoples concerns Camrons rich boys taking all what is left, food banks, poorer families having the children stolen by the rich boys of Camerons club. Rich boys of Millibands club as well. the other lot they, well they are everything thats not righ tin life.where has all the soldiers gone long time passing where has all the battleships gone sold on the cheap where is all out lives heading for the pile of heap orginized the the rick boys cameroms and Millibands creeps so vote UKIP next time thats what I done to make a change, nomore food banks no more children stolen and an army wher they can where a uniform on our streets by alan brunwin fighting against injustice by sutton children services, in the county of surrey where lots of rich camerons boys meet

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    1. Alan, I think you will find that UKIP policies are no different. They certainly aren't into equality. Farage is a "rich boy" in the same way Cameron is. They like to give the impression they are the alternative to the current "corrupt politics" but they aren't. And I hope I don't have my point proved the hard way! A majority of the public want the NHS kept in public hands, and also the railways taken back into public hands. The only party I know of that feels the same is the Green Party.

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  15. How sick can it get(excuse the pun)..

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