Member

On Amendment 68, which I started with, I think I neglected to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, and the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, for supporting it, so I will do that now. What the Minister said in recounting her experience with Sure Start centres actually provides quite a powerful argument for this amendment and for something to be put in the Bill. The Minister said—as Ministers of all stripes often do—that we are doing this anyway, so it does not need to be put in the Bill. However, we are in an age of great political turmoil and none of us knows what comes next, so it is important to make this a statutory responsibility for local authorities.