Tim Loughton (Shadow Minister (Children), Health; East Worthing & Shoreham, Conservative)

I did not want you, Mr. Amess, to whizz through the Bill thinking that we were not paying attention, so, for the record, I want to say how refreshing it is that for the first time in my experience of dealing with Bills to do with children the title is not the Children Bill. The Bill will, when it becomes the Childcare Act 2006, be easily distinguishable from all the other children’s legislation that the Government have introduced, which is constantly confused. I praise the Minister for her foresight in giving the Bill its title.

Beverley Hughes (Minister of State (Children, Young People and Families), Department for Education and Skills; Stretford & Urmston, Labour)

I am glad that the hon. Gentleman is pleased with the title. As we said at the outset, it is the first Bill that has specifically focused on young children and child care, and it is right that the title should reflect its landmark status.

With your indulgence, Mr. Amess, may I take this opportunity—

David Amess (Southend West, Conservative)

The Minister can deal with that on a point of order.

Beverley Hughes (Minister of State (Children, Young People and Families), Department for Education and Skills; Stretford & Urmston, Labour)

On a point of order, Mr. Amess. I want to express my sincere thanks to you and Mr. Benton for the way in which you conducted the Committee proceedings. You kept us on the straight and narrow, with good humour and a helpful approach, as you displayed just now. That helped to create a good foundation for our deliberations.

I also thank Opposition Members for their penetrating and probing amendments, which have required us to think more clearly, deeply and quickly about what we intend. I hope that, for the most part—if not entirely—they have been satisfied with our responses, and at least satisfied that everyone was on the same side as far as the Bill’s objectives were concerned, although we may have had slight differences about the best ways of getting there.

I should also like to thank my hon. Friends for their forensic interventions and for constituency stories, which helped to colour the rather dry language in the Bill. Their interventions were always good natured. They have been a formidable team and have certainly been supportive, for which I thank them.

I should also like to thank the Whips. They have obviously conducted their negotiations in a fruitful fashion, which has helped us. I am also grateful to my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary for her support.

Last but not least, I thank the Clerks who have assisted us and all the officials who have been involved with the Committee from time to time. I also thank my Bill team, without whom we would not have managed so well.

As we come to the end of the Committee stage of this pioneering and radical Bill, I once again thank you, Mr. Amess, and Mr. Benton. I wish hon. Members a happy Christmas and give them my best wishes for the new year.

Tim Loughton (Shadow Minister (Children), Health; East Worthing & Shoreham, Conservative)

Further to that point of order, Mr. Amess. I repeat the Minister’s great thanks to you and Mr. Benton for the excellent way in which you chaired the Committee. What a pleasure it has been to serve on it in the new spirit of concord ahead of the Christmas season.

I thank my hon. Friends, in particular my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, who was dragged kicking and screaming on to the Committee, but who has   performed in no uncertain terms, as one would expect. I also thank the Opposition Whip, my hon. Friend the Member for South-West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous), who managed to arrange the timings in an excellent way. I note the debut performance by my hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Justine Greening), who has already shown herself to be astute in child care matters and many other things relating to the House, and we look forward to great things to come. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bromsgrove (Miss Kirkbride) for bringing her experience to bear.

I also extend my thanks to Labour Members, and, in particularly, to compliment the Government Whip. As you will notice, Mr. Amess, we are in danger of finishing our proceedings before the nominated time. The Committee was conducted with no guillotine and no knives on the timing of clauses, which does not happen very often. As our proceedings have shown, leaving matters to proper debate and allowing hon. Members with an interest in them to choose how long to debate them does not mean that we use up all the time on peripheral arguments at the beginning; it merely means that we have greater freedom. The Committee has been an excellent example of how we can achieve proper debate and scrutiny of a Bill in good time, without the necessity for Government Whips to place extra requirements on us.

The Committee has been an innovatory experience for me. I have spent eight and a half years in this place, and this is the first Committee on which I have served in which Labour Back Benchers have been so engaged in the proceedings; it is certainly the first in which a Labour Back Bencher has actually sought to defy the Government Whip and abstain on a vote. We were worried when the hon. Member concerned did not appear at the nominated time this morning and thought that her mystery non-appearance was directly linked to the great courage that she had shown last Thursday. She may yet end up on the Committee that considers the Crossrail Bill as a reward for her boldness.

Even the hon. Member for Doncaster, North (Edward Miliband) has occasionally managed surgically to remove himself from his Blackberry to engage in debate and raise the standard of class war, which is apparently fashionable again in the Labour party, courtesy of the Deputy Prime Minister. We welcome seeing more of that.

I also thank the staff who worked on the Bill, in particularly the Clerk. At times, the way in which he grouped 30 amendments and a new clause together for discussion has defied brevity, but we managed to struggle through.

It is a shame that the Government have not accepted any of our amendments, not even the grammatical ones or the ubiquitous “musts” instead of “mays” and “shalls”. We will be in the dark about much of the Bill until the full regulations appear, but the Minister has been mindful of that criticism and has endeavoured to give us information whenever she could. However, we look forward to some Christmas presents in the new year.

I am grateful to the Minister, who said that we have penetrated and probed the Bill, but we have not been left as satisfied at the end of the exercise as we might have been. However, the new year will bring a fresh breeze from the Government, who may look more favourably on some of the amendments that we endeavoured to push through, with which they had to agree on principle, if not in word. I look forward to the final stages of the Bill in the House, and I hope that further accord will manifest itself in the Government admitting that we were right on more than one occasion.

In the meantime, I trust that everybody enjoys a very good Christmas and will reflect on the wisdom of the words from hon. Members on both sides of the Committee.

Annette Brooke (Shadow Minister, Education & Skills; Mid Dorset & North Poole, Liberal Democrat)

I reiterate those comments. On behalf of the Liberal Democrat team, I thank you, Mr. Amess, and Mr. Benton for chairing the Committee and for helping us to make remarkable progress in our scrutiny. I should like to thank all officials, particularly those with whom I came into contact. They advised on tabling amendments, which was very helpful.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Brecon and Radnorshire. I am pleased that, although there were only two of us, we provided some Welsh input. We now all know that there is a distinction between the Welsh Assembly and the Welsh Assembly Government. His contribution was invaluable.

I thank both Ministers. We had good and interesting discussions, and nothing was dismissed out of hand without serious consideration and an answer on which we could reflect, which I particularly appreciated. There will be plenty of reflecting over the new year.

I agree with the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham about the vast number of details that will, inevitably, be picked up in the regulations. Obviously, we are concerned about that, but we are pleased with the assurances that have been placed on the record as a result of our probing.

I thank everyone who has participated in our proceedings. The Committee has been stimulating. At first, it was a shock to the system to see Labour Members participating with such vigour. It was good to have that continuity, as it made a real difference. It is off-putting to an Opposition Member who is sincerely trying to make points if everybody else just reads their mail and signs letters. It makes a big difference when there is real engagement, and I am sure that it helps to improve the Bill. I wish everybody a happy Christmas and a happy new year, and I look forward to the next stage of the Bill.

David Amess (Southend West, Conservative)

I thank all hon. Members for their kind and generous remarks. Mr. Benton and I have thoroughly enjoyed chairing the Committee, not least because of the way in which hon. Members conducted themselves. The Bill has been properly scrutinised, and it has been done with a good sense of humour.

I thank all those who looked after us throughout our proceedings. They diligently attended to all our various requirements. In particular, I thank the team of Clerks, who provided us with invaluable information.

Finally, I wish to extend wishes to everyone for a very happy Christmas, for good health, peace and prosperity, and for a happy new year.