Clause 29
1:00 pm
Mark Harper (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; Forest of Dean, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman outlined a particular constituency case of his in which a great deal of effort was taken to get organisations working together. One of my concerns stems from a point that was raised during an evidence session in which Paul Davies specifically talked about the difficulties that his organisation had had in integrating Access to Work funding. He said that the officials that he works with in the Department for Work and Pensions
“worked their socks off to make it work.”——[Official Report, Welfare Reform Public Bill Committee, 10 February 2009; c. 8, Q4.]
Therefore, there was no lack of desire to make it work. It was simply that within the rules and regulations, it could not be done. That is why I want to ensure that the Bill gives Ministers the power to set the regulations so that officials, despite wanting to make it work, are not hamstrung by rules and regulations.