My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend the Minister for her very helpful responses and the very constructive tone in which she gave them. I am also very grateful to other noble Lords who participated in this debate.
I think that there is a large measure of agreement on this issue. We all agree that no one wants unnecessary bureaucratic burdens on local authorities. We all agree that the Section 6 duty to secure the provision is of paramount importance. I think we can all see that having a report once a year rather than every three years is helpful. No one wants lengthy reports. Some of us have seen reports almost like telephone directories that do not seem to help very much. Those are the things on which we are all agreed.
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There is one issue where there is still some difference of opinion. It is about the powerful signal that Section 11 sends to local authorities about the importance of securing this provision, based on a thorough understanding of supply and demand in their area. I recognise that there are different ways of achieving this. I would still prefer that we retain Section 11, as several noble Lords have said, but substantially simplify the regulations and give some helpful guidance with templates and things like that for local authorities so that they do not have to reinvent the wheel. If it is possible to have any further discussions on this point with the Minister before Report, I will be very grateful.