Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I shall add my words extremely briefly. I have listened to the debate with considerable interest because it summarises the real concerns that we all feel. My noble friend Lady Meacher has made some very interesting points that are well worth considering. We must not have a gap. Equally, what is being suggested shows a vague lack of appreciation of the numbers of bodies and the number of duplications involved. We do not know what they are and it would seem very sensible to carry out research before any gap occurs. Abolition must not take place if we are to have any credibility, as the noble Baroness, Lady Neuberger, said. There is time to do that research, to see what is happening and to see whether there is a suitable existing national body. I am as equally convinced as my noble friend that there is a need for a national body, not only the PPIs. It would be a good idea if the Minister could say something to the body which is to be finally abolished after nine resurrections, shall we say. It has done its duty, as it saw it. It might have been yet another example of something ill-considered that was set up far too quickly before it had to be rethought, but that is not its fault. It has been extremely helpful in briefing the rest of us, along with all the people who have written to us from all sorts of different medical, voluntary and patient bodies. I hope that there will be some rethinking on the whole issue for the benefit of everyone, not least the Government, and that someone will try to say something nice about the national body to it directly.