Welfare Reform Bill

I should like to press the Minister on behalf of my noble friend Lord Kirkwood. I am sure that he meant no discourtesy, but he was very cavalier in the way he dismissed what I thought were perfectly reasonable questions about cost. In debates on previous amendments on the assessment phase, the Minister was quite happy to talk about resource issues. To some extent, where the dividing line is drawn is not a great issue of principle; it is a bit of a trade-off, and while I do not expect him to have the figures at his fingertips, I would have thought it perfectly reasonable to ask him to write to my noble friend Lord Kirkwood with some indication of cost.