Baroness Hamwee (LD)

My Lords, before we get going on Amendment 7, I want to comment on government Amendments 10 and 11. I thank the Minister for responding not only to the amendments in Committee but to my request for a meeting, and holding that meeting during a week when he had so many—I think he can barely have had time to breathe. It was extremely pleasing to be able to pursue a matter on which we both understood what we were aiming for, even though we could not quite find the words in Committee. My amendment then was about hygiene kits. From the slightly delicate terminology used by some noble Lords in Committee, I think we had different ideas in our minds. I understand that the Government’s approach to items to assist with cleanliness and hygiene is to take care not to enable items that could be weaponised; hence the different approach to this, which I think is quite ingenious. However, I am left with a question and a bit of a concern about shaving items. I could not come up with an alternative way of expressing it, which would have met the Government’s point, but underlying my concern at the last stage was allowing asylum seekers in a very difficult situation a degree of dignity. I confess that I asked the Red Cross, from which I received a list of the items that it normally supplies to refugees, and it could not come up with an alternative way of expressing it. I have its crisis and emergency response team’s list, which includes razors and shaving lubricant, while the standard hygiene items that the Red Cross Hackney destitution centre gives out include shaving kits. However, we are where we are. Unless the Minister has anything more that he can explain to me in responding, I want to put my thanks on record.