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To be honest Sue, I have stopped reading Rollo's posts because I am never sure that he is not just talking for the sake of something to say (or potentially Shock!).
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All you people mouthing off about the British government should try doing the job, it seems everyone is an expert these days.
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Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s most senior aide, is facing conflict of interest accusations over a publicly undisclosed consultancy job at a healthcare start-up endorsed by the government and in pole position to receive cash from a £250m NHS fund.
Cummings advised Babylon Health, a controversial AI start-up, on its communications strategy and senior recruitment just months before its “GP at Hand” app was publicly backed by Matt Hancock, the health secretary, a joint investigation with The Guardian can reveal.
Cummings’ paid role with Babylon concluded in July last year but he continued to advise the company until September 2018. That month Hancock visited the company and told staff he wanted the NHS to help Babylon expand.
In August this year, shortly after Boris Johnson entered No 10 with Cummings as his top adviser, Downing Street and the Department of Health announced a new £250m fund for boosting the use of artificial intelligence for diagnoses and data analysis in the NHS. Although the money has yet to be allocated, Babylon welcomed the announcement.
There are no rules requiring special advisers to disclose previous private sector roles, but MPs said Cummings’ undisclosed advisory role raised serious questions about potential conflicts of interest.
“The links between Dominic Cummings in the heart of Downing Street, the health secretary and this AI health firm are increasingly murky and highly irresponsible," the shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said.
“Mr Cummings’ work for this company raises serious questions about a potential conflict of interest given the firm could be in line to receive public money from this new £250m AI fund.
“We need to know if he declared his work for the firm to the cabinet secretary when he joined the government payroll.
“Cummings should come clean on any other consultancy work he did before entering Downing Street so the public can have confidence that there are no other conflict of interest issues at play.”
Sarah Wollaston, the Liberal Democrat chair of the health select committee, called for reforms to the rules governing the conduct of special advisers.
“We need greater transparency on the potential conflicts of interest for all special advisers, especially given the scale of their power and influence,” she said.
Babylon confirmed Cummings was paid via his company, Dynamic Maps Ltd, which he set up in October 2017 as the sole director.
No 10 declined to answer detailed questions about Cummings’ consultancy work, including his salary for Babylon, what other firms he had advised for and why it has not been publicly disclosed. A Downing Street spokesman said: “Special advisers act in accordance with Special Advisers’ Code and the relevant provisions of the Civil Service Code, acting with integrity, and serving the public interest. Special advisers have no role in authorising expenditure of public funds.”
Babylon already holds a contract with Hammersmith and Fulham Clinical Commissioning Group, in west London, to provide NHS GP appointments by phone and video link via its GP at Hand app. More than 50,000 people have signed up for the app, but its popularity with patients outside the area has driven up costs for the group, creating a £21.6m funding hole.
Andy Slaughter, the Labour MP for Hammersmith, said: “Babylon is an organisation which is, via its GP at Hand app, distorting and undermining the whole basis on which primary care has worked since the founding of the NHS.
“It’s not just privatisation, it is undermining the ability of local GPs to serve their patients in a sustainable way.”
The GP at Hand app has expanded into Birmingham and will launch in Manchester by early 2020.
Babylon had been repeatedly boosted by Matt Hancock, who even promised to help change rules to benefit the company. At his visit to the company in September 2018, soon after his appointment as health secretary, he told staff how much he admired their work.
October 11 2019
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I was taught never to give a politician an easy ride if something seemed not quite right. They can take the flak well enough, so thick skinned are they. They put self first every time as we have seen by claims for second house equipment, travel ... and even a duck-house. Often they think the rules don't apply to them, only to everyone else. It's not surprising how many of them, their family members and their friends have shares or directorships in many companies who receive contracts from government.
Family comes next - many employ unsuitable relatives at public expense as if they were running their own factories where relatives would expect to be employed but not at public expense.
Many politicians forget about transparency and accountability that is necessary for good governance.
Their salaries are paid from the 'nation's coffers' so we are entitled to question them and their decisions and behaviour. For instance, if we had not questioned the duck-house guy he would have got away with it. We ought to have dug our heels in and questioned Cyril Smith (oops) more, as well as others I can think of.
I have no time for Thornberry, the 'white van man' woman, but I see she has raised questions about Dominic Cummings, he who went off to Russia to, as he put it, start up an airline. That was a simplistic view because he helped others with the start-up. It failed pretty quickly before it was barely off the ground.
So what did Michael Gove then Boris see in him? Heaven knows and I still wonder!
Read all about it then question it - if you're satisfied, fine, but if you're not satisfied then for heaven's sake question and dig because some of them couldn't even lie straight in bed!
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I have not posted any praise for France on this thread, far from it.
I have pointed out that France has restarted junior education without a robust TTI effort in place - just what England is about to do. France has already had to close 7 schools. France also has a smart phone app built on the same logic as the Nhsx app on trial in the IOW. It has run into the same problems and has not been deployed.
Essex CC has joined the Leas who are not yet ready to reopen schools.
My grandmother told me that if I saw someone with their hand in the fire not to follow suit.
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