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Health and Social Care Bill

I thank all Members of the Committee who took part in this debate, particularly those who spoke in support of the amendments. I had thought that I might be pushing at a slightly open door with these amendments, but no such luck. I question how robust the Minister's defence really is. As has been pointed out, I have always been under the impression that including the words ““in particular”” in an amendment was a way of specifying someone or something without implying that that was an exclusive arrangement, so I am slightly surprised that the Minister should have interpreted the amendment in the way that she did. I fully take the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth. We do not know what LINks will look like—I made that point earlier—but they are creatures of the Government's own making. It is odd, to say the least, that the Minister will not countenance the idea of giving them a special place at the table because, as the noble Lord, Lord Harris, rightly said, LINks are established by Parliament and funded by public money. Because of that alone, they have a particular claim to be involved and listened to, not exclusively, as the noble Lord emphasised, but certainly automatically. Whether the Minister's reply is a reflection of a lack of confidence in the department about how effective LINks will be or of the desire of the Government to dumb down LINks I do not know, but I hope that we can continue these discussions after Committee and before Report. I look forward to those discussions, and, in anticipation of that, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 17 not moved.]