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Personal Care at Home Bill

I agree entirely with my hon. Friend that all the work of the Health Committee and, indeed, of those who are formulating responses to the Government's Green Paper on social care policy development—presumably, that was one of the things that prompted that Committee to engage in its inquiry—is being pre-empted by this proposal. This measure is extremely good news and I understand why the Minister thinks it is popular among those who will benefit from the care that will be provided free. He said in his response to the earlier debate that we cannot wait until we can create a perfect world before moving forward, and I agree with that. However, when a Government move forward on an incremental basis, the Minister has an obligation to recognise the consequences of the incremental stages, step by step. That is the basis of the charge that I set at the Government's door; it is not that this proposal is undesirable for the people who will benefit from it—of course it is desirable for them—but it will create a series of perverse consequences and perverse incentives, several of which have been mentioned in this debate. I suspect that the Minister and his officials have probably thought those through and thought, "Oh goodness, how do we put a gloss on this?" However, nobody in No. 10 has properly thought them through.