My Lords, before the Minister sits down, I, too, should like to say a few words about the Bill, as it proceeds to another place. First, I record the thanks of these Benches for the advice and support supplied by the clerks and the Public Bill Office. It is not often that a Lords starter Bill moves down the Corridor containing such a plethora of changes from the form in which it was introduced to your Lordships’ House six months ago. To some extent, that is a reflection of the form in which it was received—which, noble Lords may recall, prompted Labour to take the unusual step of submitting an amendment on Second Reading regretting that Part 2 was bereft of detail, a fact drawing criticism from both the Constitution Committee and the Delegated Powers Committee.
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Since then, a significant number of concessions have been achieved from the Government—by my calculation, a total of 15, including the one today on mental health assessments. That demonstrates three things: first, that we can achieve progress not just by voting, because only one of those issues was resolved by a vote; secondly, that preparing reasoned and well-researched amendments can and does improve legislation; and, thirdly, which may well be regarded as a concession from me, that when they have got it wrong, the Government are on occasion capable of admitting as much.
I should like in passing to draw attention to the work involved in preparing amendments and arguments. If I may be slightly light-hearted, I believe that neither of the Ministers served as Opposition Front Benchers, so they may not appreciate that we on this side research and write all our own speeches—that applies to the other parties and the Cross-Benchers as well, of course. Unlike Opposition MPs, we do not have any staff. My noble friends Lord Hunt and Lady Wheeler and I had only one legal and policy adviser assigned to work with us on the Bill, Molly Critchley, who worked tirelessly on our collective behalf and deserves much of the credit for the manner in which it has been possible to strengthen the Bill.
Noble Lords opposite may think that I am using this as a platform to plea for parity, not perhaps of esteem but of resources—actually, I would quite like parity of resources; I am sure we all would. Perhaps Ministers will feel able to take that up and advocate it in the corridors of power. That is not part of my speech, but let me indulge in a little wishful thinking.
Returning to more serious matters, today the Bill is in a much improved condition. I will not list the concessions, but I welcome the fact that the Minister
has been willing to listen. I echo the words of the noble Lord, Lord Warner: the meetings that the Minister and his officials have set up have been of value. That was shown particularly in the part of the Bill pertaining to social workers, to which Amendment 11 refers. I do not think it is unfair to say that the position of the regulator and the review are both now far removed from the Government’s original plans.
These and many other developments are all to the good, although I have to say that they once again highlight the fact that the Government continue to rush out Bills that lack proper thought or preparation. That is evidenced in this case by the fact that the noble Lord, Lord Nash, has himself introduced more than 150 amendments, several of them containing new clauses. The Government could have avoided much of the pain that they have suffered had they undertaken meaningful consultation with the relevant, very interested sectors which have contributed behind the scenes to the Bill’s progress.
As the Bill is prepared to move to another place, we at this end of Parliament can point to a strong example of what we do well in your Lordships’ House and why it is more necessary now than it has ever been.