Health Bill

I intervene very briefly. I hope the Minister will not misunderstand the remark that I am about to make. I thought that the manner in which he responded to the debate was admirably good-humoured, and I would not wish to suggest anything else. He set us a good example in saying that he would say things only once in the course of Grand Committee. I give a guarantee that I will say only once what I am about to say. I have looked around the room and there are not many veterans—although there are some—of the Licensing Bill, which was amended more times in the Session of 2002–03 than any other Bill that passed through your Lordships’ House. It was founded on the principle that, if we allowed people to drink at any time of the night or day, continental habits would be copied throughout the United Kingdom. All the evidence since that Bill became an Act is that that is not happening, and indeed ACPO has taken a stronger position about the new legislation than it did when the Bill was going through. I would hesitate, therefore, to be certain that anything that happens anywhere else in the world is necessarily going to change behaviour here.