Welfare Reform Bill

On the purpose of the amendment, I emphasise that there are already provisions in the Bill so that the new clause would not be necessary to do anything if we wanted to. For the purposes of clarity, I say that we have no plans to deduct income derived from other memberships or appointments at this time. I tried to cover this point when I was answering the debate. We see the benefits of engagement of people in these issues and in these opportunities, but that has to be balanced with looking generally at the issue of an income replacement benefit and how that works in the system as a whole. That is where we currently are.