The House may not expect the Minister to speak for two hours, but it may expect me to do so. However, I shall refrain from doing so. I join the Minister in thanking our colleagues on both sides of the House for the work that they have done on the Bill. I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt that it was a useful exercise. The Bill was improved enormously in the other place. If it is not self-congratulatory, may I say that we in this place we have improved the Bill considerably. If the Minister had listened more carefully to us, it would have been even better, but we cannot expect miracles. We are grateful for the way in which the Minister has responded to the suggestions that we made as positively as possible.

I have one or two regrets. One is that we are discussing the Bill on local election day, when more hon. Members should have been here to discuss an important measure, which will affect people in the longer-term more than many of the other measures that we discuss.

The establishment of the new commission is a major step forward. I hope that it opens up a new era in the promotion of and education about the preservation of our heritage. The one thing that has united both sides of the House has been that we wish the new commission well and hope that it achieves all that we want it to. I also have great hope that, when the commission comes into existence, it will announce new developments such as building the Roman fort at South Shields. However, I am not entirely sure that it will. I am glad that we have this new quango. It is a pity that the Secretary of State is no longer here, as I should have liked to remind him of that. We wish the Bill well and hope that it passes through the other place and receives the Royal Assent quickly so that the new commission can get on with the task of protecting the environment and our heritage.