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Health and Social Care Bill

I thank the Minister for her reply. I am not particularly hung up about the word ““fomite””; it was just something that came into my head at the time. However, I am still unhappy about ““thing”” and ““things””. Attempting to encompass absolutely everything that might conceivably happen in the future in one single word is more or less impossible. It makes the Bill look slightly ridiculous. There will be as much argument about whether something is a ““thing”” as that applies in the Bill as there would be if we used the term ““item””, suggested by the noble Lord, Lord Walton, and then added those things that we wanted also to be included. The Minister may say that we might want to include Martians in the future—I do not know whether the Government have them in mind—but it is not inconceivable that, in decades to come, something unknown may occur that we feel is dangerous to public health. It is difficult to put all of this into a single word and the Government are wrong to try to do so. It needs more qualification. For the time being, however, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.