Welfare Reform Bill

No, and I am sure that we will discover from the Minister’s answer to the debate whether that is a job adviser or anyone else within the jobcentre. I rather doubt it, but we will discover, won’t we? The specific matter of propensity raised in these amendments begs the question: what is propensity? The question has already been asked. How can it ever be satisfactorily or consistently determined? Does it include the capacity and willingness to get overly merry at a Wednesday night football match and subsequently turn up a little red-eyed for work or work experience on a Thursday morning? Presumably that could be construed as a factor affecting one’s prospects of obtaining or remaining in work. Should it be? Perhaps it should. I offer no comment, merely the observation that is a wide and potentially unachievable proposal. I shall be interested to hear the Minister’s explanation of "propensity". Perhaps he might think about the wording of the clause before we consider it again on Report, which from this debate we most assuredly will. I offer that advice, which I am sure the Minister will welcome, naturally, because I believe that, overall, Clause 9 is important and needs to work. The numbers that have been floated about from the Peers’ information pack—I expect that the Minister will provide us with the most up-to-date statistics—suggest that there are around 350,000 drug users on benefits. If the scheme is a triumph and these people are persuaded to try to beat their habit in the way proposed, are the resources available to see that this can happen? That point was made by the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, with which I fully agree. What is the Government's plan for implementation? As I said at the beginning, I really do believe that Clause 9 needs to work. That is why training keeps popping up. If the staff are not able to do the work expected of them, the system will never get off the ground, and that would be to everyone’s detriment. In this group there is a series of amendments on data sharing. I would like to comment on that.