MPs warn on rich-poor health gap

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In a scathing report, the Commons Treasury Committee said there was no meaningful evaluation of the Government's measures which amounted to "wanton, large-scale experimentation" on the public with potentially "damaging" consequences.

The cross-party committee denounced the Government's approach as "unethical" and dismissed claims that it was tackling health inequalities in deprived areas as "hype".

The committee chairman, Labour MP Kevin Barron, said members were "shocked" at what they had discovered.

"How can those involved in addressing health inequalities know for certain what works when proper evaluation has not taken place?" he said.

"The taxpayer must be reassured that money invested in policy initiatives is making a difference."

The report said that while overall health levels in England had improved over the past 10 years, the gap between the social classes had widened - by 4% among men and 11% among women - as the health of the rich improved more quickly than the poor.

But despite the Government's commitment in the 2000 NHS plan to reduce health inequalities by 10% by 2010, ministers and officials had not made even "basic calculations" about how much was being spent on the issue.

It said attempts to evaluate the success of projects like health action zones often amounted to little more than "soft" questioning of the people involved about what they thought of them.

"Despite much hype and considerable expenditure, we have not seen the evidence to convince us that any of the specific support given to deprived areas to tackle health inequalities has yielded specific results," it said.