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Personal Care at Home Bill

I shall try to keep my comments brief because I am conscious that time is running out, and I am keen to get through the rest of the amendments if possible. I want to speak to Liberal Democrat amendment 45, but I will also comment on amendment 27. The amendments follow on succinctly from the last set of amendments and relate again to the concerns about the costs of the Bill and the fact that not only is there a real lack of faith in the costs set out in the impact assessment—many organisations have expressed that concern—but that there is a potential burden on local authorities. It would be sensible, therefore, to have in the Bill a method of reporting to Parliament on the costs. It is a shame that we did not discuss that matter with the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr. O'Brien) before, because the best amendment we could have tabled might have included subsection (a) and (b) of our amendment 45 and (b)—as subsection (c)—of his amendment 27. Having the estimated costs in future years is a good suggestion. It would also be incredibly sensible to have the annual reporting done according to every local authority area, given the burden placed on local authorities that we discussed earlier. To get to that stage, it would also be incredibly helpful—I hope that the Minister accepts that this suggestion is intended to be helpful—to look at the number of people claiming free personal care at home under the terms of the Bill. That would be sensible because it would allow the Government to identify where there is a particular need and which local authorities in England have a larger proportion of people eligible—particularly a larger proportion of older people. Where there are certain demographics, and where local authorities will be particularly burdened, it would be helpful, for those local authorities and Parliament, to have such a report. I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman intends to press amendments 31 or 27—or both—to a Division, but we would certainly support amendment 27. I think that our amendment is slightly clearer, but given that he gets the chance to press his, and we cannot press ours at this point, we would support him.