Alan Milburn

Alan Milburn (born 27 January 1958) is a British Labour politician who was the MP for Darlington from April 1992 until May 2010. He was Chief Secretary at Treasury from December 1998 to October 1999, and Secretary of State at Department of Health between October 1999 and June 2003.

Activities

Joins Big Four accountancy firm

In May 2013 PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced that Milburnf would become Chair of PwC’s new 'Health Industry Oversight Board'. In a PwC press release Milburn said:

I’m delighted to be working with PwC in this new role. The health industry in the UK offers strong opportunities for growth in the wider economy and for PwC. My aim is to bring together a panel of industry experts to help catalyse change across the health sector and to help PwC grow its presence in the health market.

Anti-obesity initiatives

In May 2007 Milburn became an advisor to Pepsico one of the organisations involved in Business4Life the business consortium behind the Department of Health's Change4Life anti-obesity initiative. Pepsico and its subsidiary Walkers Crisps are clients of Freud Communications. Freud Communications were hired by the Department of Health to run its anti-obesity campaign.

In December 2003, six months after leaving the post of Health Secretary, Milburn made a speech at Magdalen college Oxford at the Oxford Vision 2020 Conference in which he stated," Specifically an ultimatum needs to be placed before the (food) industry that unless it voluntarily cuts fat, sugar and salt in food within a specified time frame then tough regulatory action will be taken to ensure that it does so. The summit could also discuss how to make greater choice over healthier food available in local communities and local schools.In the meantime I hope Ministers will take swift action to remove fast food, soft drink and confectionery machines from all schools."

PFI initiatives

During his time as Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Secretary of State for Health, Milburn was instrumental in driving forward the Government's policy of PFI initiatives in the health service. During his time at the Treasury in 1999 Milburn stated

"The Government's commitment to partnership between the public and private sector has never been greater. The Government's new guidelines will make PFI work more effectively and more fairly. This will help deliver higher levels of investment to modernise Britain's key public services such as the NHS. By providing a platform of certainty, the new guidance will help the PFI continue to grow. Value for money deals go hand in hand with the key test of genuine risk transfer achieved under PFI contracts. This clarity of approach will enable the revised guidance to work in practice."

While in 2007 as Secretary of State for Health Milburn stated

"We plan to ... remove the Secretary of State's powers of direction over NHS Foundation Trusts. Instead of being line managed by the Department of Health, they will be held to account through agreements and cash for performance contracts... The expectation must be that the greater freedoms that NHS Foundation Trusts will enjoy will help them exceed national performance targets but that will be a matter for local not national negotiation. Those that perform well will benefit from the system of payment by results and patient choice that we announced in Delivering the NHS Plan."

Milburn is currently on the advisory board of Bridgepoint Capital. He appears to have joined them in January 2007. Bridgepoint is a venture capital firm heavily involved in financing private health care firms moving into the NHS. Milburn previously worked as an advisor to Bridgepoint between March and September 2004. Bridgepoint's subsidiary won a £16 million NHS contract six months after he joined.

Scanner scandal

In 2005 the Labour Party were accused of trying to gag one of its own MPs who strongly criticised a £90 million deal between the NHS and a private health company linked to Milburn.

Kevan Jones, the MP for North Durham, revealed that patients from his constituency were being sent 20 miles for private MRI scans, even though their own local hospital had a machine standing idle. Jones had spoken out in support of John Saxby, the chief executive of the University Hospital of North Durham, who complained about the purchase of scans from Alliance Medical, while his own NHS scanner was "considerably under-employed".

Alliance Medical was owned by Bridgepoint and the £90 million scanner deal was signed while Milburn was working for Bridegpoint. The contract for the scanner was announced by John Hutton, the then health minister who is a friend of Milburn.

According to press reports Jones' comments provoked a telephone call to the MP from a Labour Party official demanding an explanation and warning him that they should not be repeated. Jones himself refused to confirm the claim.

Affiliations

• In November 2006 Milburn set up AM Strategy Limited to undertake media/consultancy work
• Adviser, Bridgepoint Capital
• Adviser, PepsiCo (http://www.pepsico.com/) - American soft drinks giant
• Adviser, Covidien (http://www.covidien.com/) - American health care company
• Adviser, Lloydspharmacy (http://www.lloydspharmacy.com/) - UK pharmacy

Publications, Contact, Resources and Notes

Contact

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Resources

• Smithers, Rebecca, "Beyoncé, Britney ... Milburn? Ex-minister takes Pepsi challenge," Guardian, 30 May 2007, accessed 28 November 2008.
• Swaine, Jon, "MPs could face ban on second jobs," Telegraph, 24 July 2008, accessed 28 November 2008.
• They Work For You, Alan Milburn MP, accessed 28 November 2008.
• Ungoed-Thomas, Jon, et al., "Revealed: how minister cashed in on contacts," The Sunday Times, 23 November 2008, accessed 24 November 2008.
• Walker, Tim, "Milburn in the money," Telegraph, 30 April 2008, accessed 28 November 2008.