Commissioner for Older People (Wales) Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 41:"Page 2, line 35, at end insert ““or in a field which is related to Wales,””" The noble Lord said: I welcome the two government amendments in this group and am glad that they will insert the word ““must”” instead of ““may””. When we come to discuss the functions of the commissioner again, we hope that the Government will be equally ready to be more firm and say ““shall”” instead of ““may””, but that is for another time. Amendment No. 41 would insert the words,"““in a field which is related to Wales””." Of course, we cannot open up Offa’s Dyke again, and I do not think that anyone wants to do so. But we must always remember the cross-border nature of services provided for older people—indeed, all people—in Wales and how much reliance is placed on hospitals. I come from north Wales, and I know that the Liverpool and Merseyside hospitals have been of tremendous help to us; we could not have managed without them. They are run by different hospital boards. Similarly, when older people go to a residential home in Cheshire or some such other place to be near their family, they come under a different social services department and county council. Therefore, in the amendment we ask for that to be borne in mind. We need to be able to keep the borders open. In Wales, people often come from, say, Birmingham to be nearer to their family. We do not close the border, and we ask that ““fields related to Wales”” should be included in the Bill. I beg to move.