Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I have added my name to two of these amendments. If I may say so, I thought that the questions asked by the noble Earl, Lord Howe, were absolutely spot on. I want to probe a tiny bit further on the point about ring-fencing, which is important. If we had assurances on that, we would have rather more confidence in what is being proposed. What will be the basis of the funding? Do the Government intend that there will be a careful look at the residents of a particular area, and their needs, quite apart from the needs that are being spelt out as the LINks get under way? It would be important to know that. Another thing that worries me slightly is what happens if there is a fallout between the host and the LINk and they do not agree about what is being done—the host may not much want to endorse it and might get a bit critical that what it hoped for is not being achieved. Those are the sort of things that I hope are being looked at and thought about. These will be opinionated groups with all sorts of different priorities, which will not necessarily be acceptable either to the host or to the local authority. There are some problems, which, presumably, the Government are thinking through.