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Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I take a different view from that of the noble Lord, Lord Freud, but I understand the point that he makes. I am still taken aback by the inclusion of drugs in the social security welfare-to-work field, which fell out of the sky in the summer of 2008 with the White Paper—or was it the Green Paper? I cannot remember. I have been watching this subject develop in parliamentary terms since 1983 and drugs have never been a part of welfare reform. As far as I am concerned—and my experience in drugs is much more limited than that of my other colleagues—drugs should be a health problem, not a social security problem. It is almost as inappropriate as Section 8 and the abolition of income support. I was determined to get that in somehow before Third Reading was over and I have now got it safely off my chest. The inclusion of drugs is a mistake. Having said that, I think that these amendments substantially improve the Bill. I again pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, who is unfortunately unable to be in her place today, and to the work that she did in driving opposition to the Government’s original position. Where we are now is at least defensible: we are not tying people to the floor and inflicting treatment on them that they do not want, which is progress. But the Government will have to watch this very carefully and I, for one, would have been happier if these provisions had not been anywhere near a social security Bill of this significance. I do not think it appropriate that they should be there but, if they are to be in the Bill, it is much better in this format than in the earlier format.