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Health and Social Care Bill

This is a discussion in two parts: it is about ““things”” and the important issue of destroying ““things””. Under Section 45H, a justice of the peace can make an order in relation to a thing that is or is suspected of being infected or contaminated. Amendment No. 175A would replace the term ““things”” with the term ““fomites””, which was a new one on me, so I spent a little time looking it up in various dictionaries—I never recommend Wikipedia as the most accurate place to look. I know that we do not see the term ““thing”” in Bills every day, but I can assure the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, that parliamentary draftsmen are serious people. I questioned the word ““thing””, too, and was assured that they had looked at every possible alternative but had decided that that was the only word, as no other term covered everything that needed to be covered. It is crucial that whatever term is used—