Member

There is, of course, an important limitation to the amendment as drafted. It relates to failures to comply with duties under the Bill, rather than creating a general duty to act on every form of serious wrongdoing. I would have preferred it to go much further, but even within that narrower scope, I believe it addresses an important gap. The Bill is about changing the way that public authorities behave when things go wrong. That means not only being honest about what has happened but actually doing something about it when there is credible evidence of a problem. I will be very interested to hear whether the Minister agrees that there should be a clear responsibility to act on such information; if so, whether the Government believe the Bill already provides it; and, if so, where.