Personal Care at Home Bill

My hon. Friend makes the point, which I think the Government accept, that they have sought to introduce the Bill at breakneck speed. We have often discussed the provenance of the Bill, which was quickly put together for the Prime Minister's conference speech last September. The Government then produced a Green Paper, yet the principles that underlie this Bill seem to fly in the face of the principles that they ruled out in that Green Paper, and only today has a White Paper been produced. The costs have been estimated in a way that they first had to be withdrawn, and they remain uncertain. Many local authorities signed a letter to the newspapers to suggest that they had not had a chance to get the scheme ready for the time proposed. Ultimately, therefore, my hon. Friend is right that there has been some concern, but it is important that we should portray what the Government have done as an attempt at an honourable retreat, rather than as a U-turn. Above all, local authorities will have a chance to take advice and make the necessary estimation of the cost if the Bill is introduced by way of a commencement order under the affirmative resolution procedure, as would be the case under Lords amendment 2, which the Government have rightly agreed should be agreed. That will give whoever forms the next Government the opportunity to decide how the Bill sits in the context of the policies that are developed going forward, and whether it should form part of a retrospectively justifying stage 1 of a White Paper or what we hope will be a much speedier process of total social care reform, although we shall have to wait and see what the judgment of the electorate is in the forthcoming general election. With those comments I am happy to welcome the approach that the Government have taken, in having taken the advice of the Lords and deciding to take the process forward in the way that they have.