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Welfare Reform Bill

With the leave of the House, I shall quickly respond to the debate. The hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink) has just shown that we have genuine all-party support for the renaming of council tax benefit to council tax rebate, which I welcome. The hon. Member for Northavon (Steve Webb) asked about DLA. We will exempt lone parents from conditionality when the child is on any rate of the care component of DLA. That will be achieved in secondary legislation. If there is a need for the Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, my hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Jonathan Shaw), who is no longer in the Chamber, to write to him with any more detail, I am sure he will do so, but that is the advice I have been given. In respect of uprating, the hon. Member for Forest of Dean (Mr. Harper) is right that there is currently no power to make orders if the RPI is not positive, which is why it is necessary to make this change. We do not feel that it is necessary to give ourselves a continuing power, because ultimately we believe that the current situation of 0 per cent. RPI is exceptional, and the economic forecasts indicate that the RPI will return to positive growth next year, which would allow us the order-making powers we would need.