Welfare Reform Bill

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for introducing the amendments, which take account of part of what the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee had to say on the matter. One thing not available to us in what I earlier called the little red book, but let us call it the large red book, was the draft regulation under Clause 40. I was interested to hear the noble Baroness say that the draft regulations will be available. The question, therefore, is: when? On clause stand part, I was going to probe current practice of sharing information, to which the clause refers, and to explore exactly what the Government intend to change. I am curious that there appears to be no provision for the sharing of information for the purposes of preventing fraud in current legislation. If a claimant is defrauding one part of the benefit system, it is extremely likely that he or she will be defrauding another. It seems a basic precaution to alert the relevant people just in case that is happening. Can the noble Baroness explain why it has not until now been considered necessary to do that? However, there is a limit to the sort of information that should be shared—a subject to which I referred on Second Reading. Information on fraud should certainly be shared, but much information that those who decide on disability benefits will hold on a claimant is confidential and should certainly not be shared lightly, nor without express permission of the person whom it concerns. One must look at other happenings in the House. I do not know if the noble Baroness has been listening to any of the debate on the Serious Crime Bill but in that, the confidential nature of health information is appreciated, with patient data being disclosed only voluntarily. That should be true here. I am not sure that I heard the noble Baroness being as definitive on that point as she sometimes is on others. There is no need to share health data without the claimant's permission. To do so would be unacceptable. I am sure that she will tell me now that the Government have no intention of sharing such information. Should there then not be a safeguard in the Bill to prevent any future move away from that line?