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The eligibility criteria are not clear, and the example of a person being registered with a GP—we have a GP with a bad cold sitting here—is not the best one. Also, not everyone has children who go to school or nursery.
It is right that the Government is taking widespread evidence on the matter, which I will study closely to see which cycle is the best. In recent times, because of the change at the UK level, we have been driven towards five-year terms.
It is not common to hear a Conservative quoting directly a Labour shadow foreign secretary out of agreement, but I shall do my best to do justice to Hilary Benn’s excellent speech in support of our intervention.
As a result, in the bill as a whole we have used delegated powers where we feel that there is an appropriate balance between primary and secondary legislation and where that will best serve a particular policy outcome.
The task force also suggests that the UK Government lead the development of a cross-sector business awareness campaign to share best practice and that public authorities support the take-up of accreditation schemes such as the Telephone Preference Service.
Do you wish to put your point in a different way? On the £260,000 figure, with the best will in the world, the committee is unable to take a view on that alternative proposal because insufficient information has been presented to us.
If there are concerns about the techniques that are deployed in practice, we will reflect on them—I take the point. We are making the best stab at tackling the issue that we can make at this time, but that does not mean that the approach is set in stone.