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Work and Families Bill

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his assurances, and I can assure him that I accept them. I know that he will be very pleased to know that. I am very disappointed, however, by his response, not because he said that the amendment is not necessary—I think it is necessary because we have to concentrate our minds—but because he said it was not effective on the grounds that the provision may refer simply to a number of days’““paid holiday”” and that I had included the words ““bank holiday””. I am not a parliamentary draftsman. Had I thought about it in a little more detail, I could simply have provided in the amendment that there has to be a solution to the problem by December 2008, which would have been absolutely appropriate. The Bill started 15 months ago, and I am offering two and a half years, which means it will be four years before we see anything. I had intended to press for a Division but because the Minister said that the amendment is ineffective, I shall take pity on him and accept what he said. If, by the end of 2008, nothing has come forward, and I am not by then in my wheelchair, I will definitely do something about it.