Commons Bill [HL]

I come back to the first comment that the Minister made. I am not sure that I heard him correctly. I thought he said that very few statutory associations would be formed. I may have misheard him. That is what I thought he said. I shall read Hansard carefully. I thought that was what the Bill was trying to do in the first instance, but that is another matter. I did not take part in the debate until now as I thought that the points were well covered by colleagues from all sides of the Committee. It was not a case of my not being interested in or not caring keenly about the matter. I, too, received very good briefing from Professor Mercer. Indeed, he fights his corner clearly. He identified the cost of running a successful association. Some smaller associations may well find it more difficult; I do not know, because I do not have that information with me. In speaking about a matter to which we shall return shortly, the Minister mentioned flexibility. We probably all agree on it, but he said that it would happen only where local interest suggests that it should. Shortly we shall come to how you decide what local interest is and who says so, and how their choice should be overridden or decided by others. That is slightly wider; the Minister took us further along the line than the amendment. Issues arise from this, but I wanted to clarify what I thought that I had heard the Minister say in the first instance.