Member

I very much hope that my noble friend the Minister will be favourable towards my amendments, compared with Amendment 135A, which seeks to reduce the information on page 58 that the local authority must take into account. I do not quarrel with that; I just think my amendments are simpler and better for application. Above all, they accord with the words of my noble friend the Minister when she wrote in her letter of 7 January that “it is important to ensure a proportional approach, providing local authorities with the information they need without placing unnecessary burdens on parents”. I suggest that my amendments achieve that. Regrettably, I suggest that the Bill as presently drafted does not. I beg to move.