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Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [HL]

My Lords, we on these Benches associate ourselves with the proposed amendments. We warmly admire the work that has been done by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, in digging into this field and reflecting in the amendment the concerns of a number of organisations, such as Citizens Advice and the Children’s Society. It would be interesting to hear from the Minister what the Government’s thought processes have been, not only about the present position but about how we got to it. It has been something of an uphill task to raise these issues. We were somewhat surprised at that, particularly as it was believed that the Government were sympathetic to the concept of licensing. As the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, has spoken at some length, I will not protract the debate on this topic, but I look forward very much to the Minister’s reply.