Ms Ruth Kelly (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; Bolton West, Labour)

I take this opportunity to thank you, Mr. Amess, and Mr. Benton for having steered the Committee sittings so efficiently to a conclusion. I am sure that I represent all members of the Committee when I say that we have greatly valued your advice and guidance. I also thank the Clerks who have supported you so ably, the Hansard reporters, the Doorkeepers and the police who have enabled us to continue the sittings. I would also like to thank my Back-Bench colleagues.

Dr Desmond Turner (Brighton, Kemptown, Labour)

Thank you very much.

Ms Ruth Kelly (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; Bolton West, Labour)

I am glad that my thanks are appreciated. I welcome the constructive part that Opposition Members, particularly the hon. Member for Witney, have played in the proceedings. I also pass on my personal congratulations and those of all of us here to the hon. Gentleman on his new arrival. Last but not least, I thank my officials for supporting me so valuably to date.

Mr George Osborne (Tatton, Conservative)

I join the Minister in my thanks to you, Mr. Amess, and to Mr. Benton, to the Clerks, the Hansard reporters, the Doorkeepers, the police and anyone else who I have forgotten. I particularly want to thank Conservative Members for their assiduous attendance throughout the sittings, and I thank the Minister for the way in which she has responded to many of the points that we have made.

This has been by far and away the most constructive Committee of which I have been a member. We have actually made some changes to the Bill. The Minister has always struck me as a brilliant example of someone who is a Blairite, who works for the Chancellor and who prays to the Home Secretary. She really has covered her bets in a brilliant way.

I also thank the hon. Member for Yeovil for the way in which he has conducted his contributions to the sittings, and for his co-operation in our voting together on several matters.

Just before we started the sittings, I read a quotation from the Minister in the Daily Mail—I know that it is one of the Treasury's favourite papers—that said:

''The Tories should be explaining why they want to scrap our child trust funds.''

I hope that we have shown that we do not oppose child trust funds; we hope that they work and we have tried to be constructive in our amendments to ensure that they have an even better chance of working. We certainly do not want to scrap them, as the Minister said, although she probably did not draft the press release that went out in her name. With that, Mr. Amess, I end by saying that I look forward to the Report stage.

Mr David Laws (Yeovil, Liberal Democrat)

To those of the Minister and the hon. Member for Tatton I add my thanks to you, Mr, Amess, and to Mr. Benton for the very delicate and deft way in which you have chaired the sittings. I also thank the Clerk and the Hansard officials for the work that they do behind the scenes improving our amendments and our speeches, at times. I thank the

Minister's officials and the Labour Members who have supported her with frustrating loyalty on most occasions.

I also thank the Minister and the hon. Member for Tatton. The three Front-Bench spokespersons involved in the sittings are MPs at the younger end of parliamentary age spectrum—the hon. Member for Tatton being a child of the '70s and the Minister, a child of the late '60s. With the will of the electorate, it is highly probable that we will be here when the CTF accounts mature in about 16 years, and we will then be able to judge whether the proposal has worked. [Interruption.] I note that Labour Members are suggesting that there should be a Committee reunion. I would be very happy to take part in that, and we will see who was proven right about the proposal.

I thank the hon. Member for Tatton for his constructive approach during the sitting. We have tried to support each other's amendments where they made sense. At times I would have liked him to be more critical of the Bill but we understand his position on this issue.

I thank the Minister for the very constructive way in which she has engaged with the Bill. She is a very frustrating Minister to deal with. Because she is always so patient and tolerant it is very difficult to get angry with her. She stays at the wicket, batting away balls, which one throws at her very effectively, in a way that only Ministers who have served with the Chancellor for a long time can have learned.

Mr David Amess (Southend West, Conservative)

As a child of the '50s, I thank hon. Members for their kind and generous remarks. Mr. Benton and myself think that this has been a model Committee; all Members have been extremely good-natured. I particularly want to thank all those who have assisted us throughout our sittings. Most of all, I thank the Clerks, without whose advice and wisdom we would not have been able to deal with matters so efficiently.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill to be reported, without amendment.

Committee rose at eleven minutes past Three o'clock.