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Health and Social Care Bill

I am not sure that I would approach it from that direction. I would approach it from the other direction, which involves considering the service that is being delivered, its nature and where it comes from—and how it is paid for plays a large part, too. If my hon. Friend looks at my private Member's Bill, which is still live—although I suspect it will not make much progress in October—he will see that in it I have set out a checklist of factors to consider. The more factors that apply, the more likely the institution is to be a public authority, whereas the fewer factors that apply, the less likely it is to be a public authority. The best way of approaching the overall picture probably is to consider the functions—who pays for them, who delivers them and the nature of the tasks being performed. There are a number of different formulations. I do not suggest that mine is ideal, but I come back to the simple point that we must have a comprehensive answer on the meaning of ““public authority”” in these circumstances. Although my hon. Friend the Minister's amendment is extremely welcome, in that it deals with the urgent problem of funded care home residents, it does not deal with the much wider issue. We await some urgent announcements from the Government on how they will take the issue further forward. I hope that my hon. Friend will be able to focus on that when he replies. I welcome what he has done so far—so far, so good—but there is an awfully long way to go.