I am grateful to the Minister, and to you for your indulgence, Mr Deputy Speaker. It shows your flexibility that you allowed one long response, rather than having more interventions flowing on from that. [Interruption.] Well, it was very welcome for its content, and I am grateful to the Minister for putting that on the record.
My final point concerns clause 5(2)(k) and what we mean by
“principal legal or ethical issues”.
It seems to me that “principal” is redundant. Why do we need to talk about “principal” legal issues unless we specify more clearly what we mean by that? Do we mean that some laws or legal issues are more important than others? What does it mean? We have not yet had an answer on that—I do not know whether the Minister has one readily to hand.
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We then get on to guidance and the timescale within which it should be published. The Minister said that she expects guidance to be in place within 12 months, and that she would take personal responsibility for delivering that. That is a helpful undertaking, but I hope that the Government will be able to produce draft guidance before the Bill is considered in the other place. There are a lot of precedents for the Government bringing forward draft guidance while legislation is still under consideration, and it is a pity that we do not have it at this stage. If my hon. Friend wants to put pressure on her officials, as I know she does, I urge her to demand that they produce draft guidance before the Bill reaches the other place. That draft guidance will then have the benefit of being commented on in the other place by groups of people who are not lacking in expertise in this area. That will make for a better public consultation, which will formally follow once the Bill is enacted. I hope my hon. Friend will push that forward as hard as she can, and use the encouragement that we are giving her today to put pressure on her officials and show that she is in charge of the whole process.
I have already said that clause 7 does not make sufficient reference to family and relatives, and other amendments to the Bill are of less significance than those tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley. I hope that when responding to the debate, the hon. Member for Croydon North will reinforce the view that amendments 11 and 12 go to the heart of this matter. The issues that were dealt with in extenso by my hon. Friend were highly informative and persuasive. It may be that there is just a technical problem as far as the Government are concerned, but that they buy into the idea. Indeed, I am sure there is every possibility that they might buy into it a bit more if, when he responds to the debate, the hon. Member for Croydon North makes clear that he strongly supports amendments 11 and 12, as do I.