Member

All in all, these are really important amendments, dealing with very diverse and important issues, which really need to be considered separately. I hope that will be possible at a later stage in consideration of the Bill, because I am confident that the Minister will at least make some concessions in this Committee: he cannot possibly just continue telling us about the black hole and the need to have consistency. These are real hard cases that need support. I accept he is not going to abandon the policy of imposing increases in national insurance, but he can at least show some regard to the very hard cases that have been identified in considering these amendments.