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Health Bill [HL]

I am grateful for the noble Baroness’s intervention. On the interface between health and social care, we made it quite clear in this document that individuals will have to agree their care plan with the help of staff from both health and social care. The circumstances may arise in which there are two types of budgets. We are encouraging pooled budgets, which is exactly what we need to do. On the regulations governing the use of direct payments in health in paragraph 22, I will look into that in more detail and come back in writing with the timings of when they should happen. A few more points were raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay. Actually, there were many, many questions in a very short speech. I am sure that we will cover many of them later on, such as indemnity and budget overspend. I hope that I have addressed the evidence base. I will look into the cross-border issue and come back to noble Lords. I have no doubt that it is no different even from outside the context of personal health budgets, or if the budget runs out. I hope that I have given Members of the Committee a summary of, and reassured them on, some of the issues that were raised—certainly in our debates on some of the probing amendments—to get more clarity. I have certainly enjoyed this debate, and hope Members of the Committee are confident that the amendments can be withdrawn.