PM fails to set date for release of long-awaited adult social care green paper

By George Ryan15th May 2019News EnglandAdult Care, Business / Funding / Finance, Government / Politics, Social Care, Top Stories

The Prime Minister failed to set a date for the publication of the long-awaited Green Paper on adult social care after she was challenged by a Tory MP.

During PMQs, Andrew Lewer (Northampton South) asked Theresa May for a “definitive and unalterable date” for the release of the Green Paper on adult social care.

In the March 2017 Budget, Chancellor Philip Hammond said the Government would publish a Green Paper on social care.

This was then included as a commitment in the Conservative Party’s manifesto for the 2017 General Election.

According to a House of Commons Library briefing, the original publication date of “summer 2017” was missed and then subsequent dates of January and April 2019 were also missed.

Mr Lewer said for the sake of “trust in the Prime Minister and the Government” it was important that “dates are set and then stuck to”.

Mrs May responded: “Can I say to my honourable friend he is absolutely right that we need to abide and will abide by, the Government’s commitment to publish a Green Party in relation to adult social care.

“We want to ensure that when we do that we are able to bring forward proposals that deliver the answer, or possible answers, to the question which is how can we ensure that support for social care system is sustainable into the future.

“We will be publishing it at the earliest opportunity and it will set out those proposals to ensure that the social care system is sustainable in the longer term.”