---

Health and Social Care Bill

I, too, welcome the amendments, and we should not let the other place take all the credit. It was clear from discussions in Committee that the Minister was sympathetic to the arguments that some of us were making. I was also part of the delegation mentioned by the hon. Member for Luton, North (Kelvin Hopkins). It was clear that the will existed to make the changes, and the Minister regretted that he did not have time to bring it to the Commons because work was needed on the detail. The matter of the significant proportion of care home residents who are privately funded is still outstanding. We often give the example of two people sitting side by side in a private care home, one funded by the state and the other not, and the differential between them. That is clearly unfair and needs to be tackled, but the amendment—which will affect those who are publicly funded—will make staff in care homes think about all aspects of human rights, including those raised by the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr. O'Brien), and they are unlikely to distinguish between residents on the basis of how they are funded. The amendment will therefore drive up standards overall. We must not be complacent. Some homes do not have any publicly funded residents, but they may have residents who qualify for a contribution to their nursing costs. Presumably—the Minister could perhaps clarify the point—because those people are receiving that contribution, the Human Rights Act could be used to redress any problems that they might have. In that case, we may be worrying unnecessarily in some cases. I thank the Minister for listening on this issue. It has been raised in several forums, including in discussion on the equality Bill, and I am delighted that we have made progress.