Member

The noble Lord, Lord Murray, has again made suggestions and is concerned about the impact on a range of small businesses or organisations. I fully understand that concern, but I hope I can reassure him that the figure of 200 and the measures requested by the Bill are important measures that I still regard as good practice. Let him look at Clause 5 and at what the Bill requires, and he will see that that is good practice. I accept that at over 200 a range of issues will need to be considered, but my contention to the House is that the consultation we have undertaken means that 200 is a figure that should be stuck to. When I am in the position where I have noble Lords behind me saying 100 and noble Lords in front of me saying 300 or 400, I find myself thinking that maybe the Government are in the right place on this, and maybe we can have the benefit of the doubt on that. We think the figure is in the right place.