'Significant change' in spin by Meacher

Michael Meacher, the Environment minister, rejected a piece of spin-doctoring from his own department yesterday over the latest figures on the quality of life in Britain.

He declined to endorse the opening phrase in the press release from his Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) describing statistics which show soaring violent crime, a lack of progress on health, increasing road traffic, the piling up of waste and a decline in wildlife. The release began: "Life in Britain is getting a lot better."

Mr Meacher said: "I'm very cautious and nervous of making such statements. I'm well aware that they can produce a raspberry." He admitted there were serious problems revealed in the latest annual headline indicators of sustainable development, which the Government refers to as the "UK Quality of Life Barometer".

The Government says the 15 indicators, in a series begun in 1999, show continuing improvement in economic output, employment, relief of poverty and social exclusion, education, progress in countering climate change, and the quality of air and river water.

However, where the figures show deterioration, such as in violent crime and the status of farmland birds, the word "deterioration" is replaced by "significant change in direction away from meeting objective". The minister laughed when this was pointed out.

Mr Meacher said: "There are quite a lot of things that are going wrong and that we need to deal with and I am not trying to pretend that that isn't so."

The 20 per cent rise in violent crime in only three years was "alarming" but the Government was not being complacent.

He said: "Of course it's a mixed picture ... but let's be fair, on most of these headline indicators, either there is satisfaction or definite improvement."