London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The 1980 Black Report on inequalities in health has attained almost iconic status as the textbook example of a Government 'cover up'.

Now a new book, edited by Virginia Berridge of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine's History Unit, and Stuart Blume, the Committee's Scientific Secretary back in 1980, reveals the political wranglings and private disagreements between the scientists and civil servants who sat on the Commission, and examines whether the incoming Tory Government under Margaret Thatcher really did bury the report's findings.

Poor Health: Social Inequality before and after the Black Report, explores how health inequalities have been dealt with since the founding of the NHS in 1948, and asks why, despite the egalitarian aspirations of its founders, health inequalities still persist half a century later. It examines the legacy of the Black Report, probably the most extensive effort to address the problem in post-War Britain, and asks what current policymakers can learn from its finders.

The book reveals the discussions which took place at a Witness Seminar held at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) at which, for the first time, two of the key scientists involved in the Black Committee, Professor Jerry Morris, who was based at LSHTM at the time and is still here, aged 92, and Professor Peter Townsend talk about a fundamental clash of principle on how its findings should be funded. The book also includes revealing testimony from Stuart Blume, the Committee's Scientific Secretary, about the difficulties of the task everyone faced and his exasperation at the lengthy delays in publishing the report's recommendations, which led to the 'political moment' being lost.

Perhaps most controversially of all, Patrick Jenkin, Minister at the time, reveals that he was advised by civil servants under Margaret Thatcher's incoming Tory administration to publish with the minimum of publicity because of the report's potentially huge expenditure implications. This led to the report being published in typescript and released on an August Bank Holiday - and effectively buried.

The book provides a fascinating insight into this significant event in recent history, and sheds light on the role played by the scientist in the development of Government policy, and the difficulties that can ensue when science and politics collide.

Other papers in the book come from Roderick Floud, President of Universities UK, and Charles Webster, official historian of the NHS, while Mark Exworthy and Sally Macintyre write of the post-Black history of inequalities and the recent Acheson Report.

Poor Health: Social Inequality before and after the Black Report, Virginia Berridge and Stuart Blume (Eds) is published by Frank Cass Publishers, price £35. ISBN 0 7146 5339 X. Copies can be ordered by phoning 020 8920 2100.

If you would like to interview Virginia Berridge, please contact the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine's Press Office on 020 7927 2073.

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