THIS week we have seen the Liberals bow to the pressure of their Tory paymasters in their support for the non-publishing of the Transitional Risk Register, in relation to the Health and Social Care Bill.

Having seen a few passages from the risk register, as leaked by Save Our NHS, costs are bound to increase, levels of service decrease and could see GP consortia running out of money.

The failure of Liberals to stand up for what they believe in is astonishing. William Beveridge will be turning in his grave at the fact that his party could act so recklessly and stoop so low as to bang the Cabinet table at their degrading success.

Owain Gardner, Centurion Square, Skeldergate, York.

•Your correspondent, R Keeler (Letters, March 13) is correct to say that management costs in the NHS have increased over many years, but is wrong to ascribe this to Tony Blair’s years as Prime Minister.

In fact, ironically given their obsession with “cutting bureaucracy”, management costs increased under the Tories in the 1980s – Thatcher’s years!

Before Margaret Thatcher introduced the purchaser/provider split – where one NHS body commissions care, currently the PCTs, and another, the acute and mental health hospitals, provide the care – admin costs in the NHS were about five per cent of the total NHS budget.

This was the lowest in the world (the much-vaunted private US system was about 15 per cent).

After Thatcher’s changes, which included the introduction of hospital trusts, admin costs in the UK shot up to about seven per cent – still low compared to other countries’ wasteful (mainly private) systems.

It is this cost efficiency that is threatened by the Tories’ new attempt to ‘reform’ our NHS, and to bring in even greater involvement of the private sector.

Coun Sandy Fraser (Labour), Micklegate ward.