Government admits spending figures 'wrong for the past four years'

Yesterday in Parliament, as is usual on the last day, a ton of Ministerial statements is pumped out. My favourite is one from the Department of Health that issued a correction to written answers provided to the following MPs on the given dates in the matter of the cost of advertising spending in the NHS.

• Ann Coffey on 23 June 2009;
• Mr. Stephen O’Brien on 21 April 2009
• Mr. Don Foster on 5 November 2008
• Sir Nicholas Winterton on 4 November 2008
• Mr. Mike Penning in 22 October 2008
• Sir Peter Soulsby on 15 July 2008
• Mr. Mark Hoban on 3 April 2008
• Mr. David Simpson on 25 February 2008
• Mr. Norman Lamb on 5 February 2008
• Sandra Gidley on 25 January 2008
• Mr. Mark Simmonds on 3 December 2007
• Sandra Gidley on 19 July 2007
• Mrs. Theresa May on 25 June 2007
• Mr. Lansley on 4 June 2007
• Mr. Mike Penning on 17 April 2007
• Mr. Lansley on 15 January 2007
• Mr. Swire on 6 December 2006
• Mr. Lansley on 8 November 2006
• Mr. Hayes on 19 July 2006
• Justine Greening on 5 June 2006
• Mr. David T.C. Davies on 28 March 2006
• Mr. Weir on 28 March 2006
• Anne Milton on 20 March 2006
• Mr. Andrew Turner on 7 July 2005
• Mr. Burstow on 7 July 2005

So baically for the last four years they've been consistently giving out the wrong figures. It will come as no surprise that a quick comparison shows that the figures originally given are more often than not less than the new corrected figures (below).

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Bad news buried, bad news dug up. Can we believe a word Brown ever says on spending when they admit things like this?