Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing me a moment to reply.
The amendments, particularly new clause 2, have had strong support from my hon. Friends and I am grateful to them for putting their views on record. I welcome the Minister’s statement that the Government will publish guidance to private sector contractors. He went further, saying that if that is not effective, the Government will consider extending freedom of information contracts to private suppliers. I consider that to be a significant move forward, certainly from where we were in Committee. It is a win for my hon. Friend the Member for Derby North (Chris Williamson) and others who have championed this. We very much look forward to seeing that guidance, but we also commit to taking the issue forward ourselves.
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In relation to integrated audit, I believe that the Minister—whether intentionally or not—has sought to misrepresent what our amendment would do in practice. We have not said that the National Audit Office should audit local government, for example. We have simply said that we should work together in audit. We have also not said that the absence of integrated audit is in itself a barrier to taking forward community budgets; rather that it will be an enabler and a complementary approach as we take forward community budgets around the country.
I beg to ask leave to withdraw the clause.
Clause, by leave, withdrawn.