I paid tribute to the right hon. Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East (Paul Goggins) earlier. When I heard the news, I e-mailed his office, as that was the only way I could contact his family. I hope that message got through. It is not just in my current post that the right hon. Gentleman has been supportive; he was also supportive when I was a Northern Ireland Minister. He was an excellent Minister there as well. I pay tribute to the measured response from Her Majesty’s Opposition so far today and I am sure that that will continue. I particularly pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Tracey Crouch) on what must have been a difficult speech to make. The right hon. Gentleman, who is very poorly, is a close friend; we are friends across the House. It is a tribute to my hon. Friend that she was able to move the amendments today.
During the Committee stage, I gave undertakings to the right hon. Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East—inside and outside the Committee—and discussed the restraints I was under, which he fully understood, given the deal that we struck with the insurance industry to get the Bill to where it is today. As promised, I met the ABI, to which the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green) alluded, and the ABI has gone to the industry and will come back to me and to my noble friend Lord Howe as part of the joint approach that we have with the Department of Health on future research.
I have also spoken to Lord Howe, as I committed to do in Committee. As the hon. Lady said, we have had the first meeting. One of the things I touched on with him was the issue of quality of research. That matter has been taken out of context slightly, although there was no intention to do so. It is like when anyone bids for anything; they have to tick the right boxes. When people go for a loan at the bank, they need to make sure that they have ticked the right boxes. It is not a question of the quality of research; in many cases, it is how that research has been bid for by the establishments.
It is true that the National Institute for Health Research provided £2.2 million in 2012-13 on top of the £1.4 million from the private sector. There has been money and we expect more money to come as bids come forward that match the way in which the research funding is allocated. I completely agree with the shadow Minister that we need to look at research not just in this country, as a developed nation, but for developing countries. A lot of the industries that developed products with asbestos in them have been selling them to the third world for many years. Thank goodness, many of the nations that we traditionally thought of as third world nations are now developing nations, and it is important to force this issue forward.
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I fully understand the context, tone and feelings in the House today in support of the new clause, as supported by my hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford, but I honestly cannot break the deal,
which is what would happen. We have a 3% provision based on a 75% basis, to which we will return later. Although I truly understand the feeling to press the new clause to a vote on behalf of the right hon. Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East—I would have done so myself if I were in opposition—we do not know whether he would have accepted the work I have done with Ministers in other Departments.
I have done everything I was asked to do and had committed to doing in Committee. Much more work is to be done, but I cannot break the deal that has been agreed. I am afraid that this is going to be a repetitive comment from me, as it was in Committee. I see the right hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East (Mr Brown) nodding, because he knows of the constraints I am under, just as the right hon. Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East always knew. We need the deal to go through, so that we can get the compensation going out as soon as possible. With that, I respectfully ask for the new clause to be withdrawn, although I would fully understand it if we proceeded to a vote.