Portrait of the week | 9 April 2011

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Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, told the Commons that the government was delaying plans to reform the National Health Service that would give GPs responsibility for commissioning health services. ‘It is not just a question of presentation,’ said Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister. ‘This is also a question of making substantive changes to the legislation.’ After announcing government policy on social mobility, Clegg mentioned that informal internships for young people in Whitehall would be banned because it should not be a matter of ‘someone who’s met somebody at the tennis club or the golf club’, even though he had once benefited from a intern placement. The government announced that the full state pension of £97.65 a week, which can be topped up to £132.60 with pension credits, would be replaced by a £140 flat rate for new pensioners, which inflation would be expected to push up to £155 by 2015 or 2016.