---

Health and Social Care Bill

I shall be quick, as I do not want to delay the Committee. The Government are providing an opportunity to improve the lot of pregnant women and their offspring. The evidence that I cited previously comes from women who were severely undernourished prior to conceiving and it is their female offspring who will pay the price when they become pregnant. Those people were effectively starved. The biggest problem that we have at the moment is malnutrition, often obese malnutrition. That problem is completely different from the problem of undernutrition, which is often protein undernutrition. This has been a terribly important debate. It would be helpful if between now and Report we could all have some clarity about what the Government hope to achieve. It seems that the grant would present us with a wonderful opportunity if it were used correctly.