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Welfare Reform Bill

Before the noble Baroness answers that, the noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, has made a very valid point. We will shortly move on to Clauses 10 to 15, which concern conditionality. One worry—certainly it is a concern of mine, my noble friends and indeed the Joint Committee on Human Rights and others—is that conditionality might depend on a decision by someone who is not a direct employee but, rather, a contracted-out employee of the Secretary of State. That would be wrong, and perhaps the noble Baroness will include it in her thinking.