Health Bill

I am most grateful to the noble Baroness. As a former Chairman of Ways and Means who took through the Maastricht Bill, I can assure her that I have never been party to any filibuster. This is not a filibuster but—I make this very sincere point through the Deputy Chairman—this Bill is in Committee and it requires exhaustive investigation and challenge. We need to winkle answers out of the Minister. He can shrug his shoulders, but he does not even have the courtesy to send me a reply to a letter. The Minister may treat this as a trivial matter, but I have taken part in a great many Committees and have chaired the Maastricht Committee, which was something that he has never done. I do not think that he has ever had to handle anything in real depth during his political career. So I say to the noble Baroness that this is not a filibuster, but I expect to look at some of these issues in great detail, which will take some time, although some matters will be dealt with quite quickly.