My Lords, I share my noble friend’s concern about what we have heard tonight. From what the noble Earl said, in essence the mandated scheme will be a scheme in which the person’s assets will have to come down below £23,250 before a deferred payment arrangement must begin. The noble Earl went on to say that he wanted to encourage local authorities to use a power more widely. That local authority power is discretionary. The great fear must be that the mandatory scheme will in essence turn out to be the scheme that all local authorities will adopt. That is why I link that concern to Amendment 63 for a model scheme. In the circumstances it is absolutely
essential. A mandated model scheme does not guarantee a universal scheme, but at least sets the framework for one. The House should consider it very carefully. I beg to move.