Home Information Pack (Amendment) Regulations 2007

My Lords, I apologise for the fact that I have been in Grand Committee on the Children and Young Persons Bill and have therefore missed a substantial part of this debate. I believe that I have made the general salient points on earlier occasions. If the regulations are to be judged on the basis of whether the Government have produced a panacea for the massive problem that existed—the gap between the agreement, or the meeting of the minds between two parties on a real property sale, and the exchange of a concluded contract—the answer must clearly be no. They have not done so. Nor will they, and nor will any other government anywhere in the world, within the system of English law. They have tried hard. Their efforts go back some 10 years, and in so far as the home information pack and the energy performance certificate are concerned, they have tried honourably and properly to bring about some amelioration of the problem between purchaser and vendor. They have also brought about some amelioration of the environmental problems that this generation must face.