Clause 40
Welfare Reform Bill
5:15 pm
Jim Murphy (Minister of State (Work), Department for Work and Pensions; East Renfrewshire, Labour)
I will take up the hon. Gentleman’s invitation. As I said, if I am in error, I will enlighten the Committee about the specifics. Is it St. Luke who isthe patron saint of light? The provision concerns the greater use of information rather than its sharing. The clause provides an extension of that opportunity to English county councils. I confirm again to the hon. Gentleman that third parties will not have wider access to information under clause 40. However, I will respond, in a technical sense, to his specific points.
The additional points raised by the hon. Member for Windsor alluded to the breadth of the power to make regulations. Clause 40, as with other clauses, gives the Secretary of State a relatively broad power to take into account changes in the benefit system, the changing nature of the welfare market, changing pressures, the shape of the labour market, the need to adapt to the opportunities of information technology, including those in the future, and the changing relationship between the private and voluntary sector and the welfare market. It is important to give that broad power to the Secretary of State. We will state that in more detail, in regulation and guidance, before implementation.
Members of the Committee will have an opportunity to offer their reflections on the draft regulations before the Committee and state whether we have got them exactly right. For the first time in this Committee, I offer to write to hon. Members if I have not got the numbers exactly right. Neither myself nor my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State enjoy doing that. I think that we have written once to Members during our entire deliberations. However, if necessary and for the first time in our proceedings, I will write to the Committee. With that, I encourage the Committee to let the clause stand part of the Bill.