My Lords, I begin by adding my own congratulations to the noble Baroness, Lady Falkner, on her moving and excellent speech. I am very glad that she can be recruited to the band of usual suspects who can always be relied on to talk on carers' issues. I wonder whether any colleagues on the Liberal Democrat Benches share the thought I had about how pleased Lady Seear, such a doughty campaigner for carers and a great mentor of mine, would have been to hear the noble Baroness, Lady Falkner.

I am delighted to speak today in support of this important Bill and pay warm tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, for introducing it and to Dr Hywel Francis for the masterly way in which he piloted it through its stages in Another place. I want also, as everyone else has done, to thank Carers UK, especially Emily Holzhausen and Dave Clark, although in doing so I must declare an interest as their former employer and now their vice-president.

I want also to pay tribute to the Minister in the other place and the officials in the various government departments who have been so supportive, and to give special acknowledgement to my noble friend Lord Warner, not only for the supportive part I am sure he will play today but for the contribution he made to developing carers' services in the 1990s. As a senior research fellow at the University of Kent he took part in an unprecedented programme of research on carers on behalf of Carers UK (then Carers National Association) considering the implementation of the National Health Service and Community Care Act and carers' and local authorities' experiences of that Act. The two reports he produced, entitled, Just a Fairy Tale?, published in 1994, and Better Tomorrows published in 1995 provided invaluable evidence which really helped the passage of the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995. Both were an authoritative guide to what carers were getting or not getting and were the basis on which we campaigned for the first carers Act.

We are here today in this third Private Members' Bill for carers in what we might perhaps begin to call a series. I have had the privilege of being involved with them all, in rather different ways. For the first, the Malcolm Wicks Bill, I was involved as chief executive of what is now Carers UK and in the role of supporting and advising the parliamentarians and organising the carers' lobby. The then political divide might have been a problem. We had a Labour MP with a Private Members' Bill and a Conservative government. However, it proved not to be so thanks to the good offices of the then Minister, now MEP, John Bowis.

The Carers (Recognition and Services) Act gave all carers of any age a right to request an assessment of their ability to care when the person they were caring for was about to have a community care assessment, and placed a duty on local authorities to take the results into account when deciding what services to provide for disabled persons.

For the second Bill, the Tom Pendry Bill, I was by then a Member of Your Lordships' House and had the honour of taking that Bill through here as well as being closely involved in the campaign which supported it. The second Bill was different from the first, insofar as by then, 2000, the carers' issue was much more firmly on the political agenda and followed on from the excellent carers' strategy announced by this Prime Minister in early 1999. The Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000 gave carers aged 16 and upwards the right to request an assessment of their ability to care as long as the person they cared for was someone for whom services might be provided, but it also gave local authorities powers to provide carers with their own services. Very importantly, it gave local authorities the power to provide voucher schemes for breaks for carers and to make direct payment to them.

This third Bill is different again. We have had the same media attention, the same negotiations, the same well-organised campaign and the same struggles about what is and what is not possible in a Private Members' Bill, but this time it goes beyond what was aimed for and achieved by the previous Bills or even the carers' strategy. It goes beyond getting carers more recognition of their needs and attempts to achieve for them what a carer in one memorable phrase that I will never forget referred to as "an ordinary life".

That is what carers want above all: the right to do the things which most of us take for granted. They do not want to have these things—time off, a job, leisure opportunities, to go to the leisure centre or just to have a weekend break—at the expense of their caring. Let us be clear: most carers do not want to give up their caring duties; they love the person for whom they are caring, or at least have a very strong sense of obligation to them. However, they want to combine caring and also have a bit of free time, a job which earns money or fulfils them. They want to feel like an equal partner in the delivery of care and not a passive recipient of what someone wants to dole out to them.

The Bill is so important to carers because it establishes the principle of equal opportunities—a concept missing from previous legislation, however welcome that legislation was. This legislation takes carers out of being a "client" or a "user" and almost onto a rights basis. Carers have warmly welcomed this development. That is clearly emphasised by the huge amount of support from over 300 organisations, as my noble friend Lord Ashley reminded noble Lords.

It is very important to capitalise on this good will and to see that the guidance which is issued as a result of the Bill explores further the issue of carers and equal opportunities and looks at how social services can actively promote equal opportunities within all their policies for carers.

I want to say a word about carers and health. The original Bill contained provisions which would have placed a duty on health bodies and local authorities to work together to promote the health and well-being of carers. In Committee, it was agreed that we would lose this Clause in favour of another measure. At Third Reading on 14 May, Stephen Ladyman, the Minister in another place, said:

"We can better deliver on the promise to ensure that PCTs will have to consult and take into account the health needs of carers through developmental support rather than through directing them through secondary legislation. I assure the House that although we will not proceed with the directions we will pursue alternatives".—[Hansard, Commons, 14/5/04; col. 586.]

It would be helpful if the Minister could report on any progress that has been made on this issue and expand further on what they intend to do to provide developmental support and what those alternatives will be.

The General Household Survey found that 72 per cent of carers who provide over 50 hours of care per week suffer from ill-health; that 50 per cent have been treated for a stress-related disorder since becoming a carer; and that almost half have been treated for a physical injury. While there have been positive developments in local authorities in recognising carers, the NHS still has some way to go. So this is a very important issue.

Also important in the Bill is the duty to consider whether the carer wishes to work, to enter education or life-long learning and, indeed, leisure as part of the assessment. It gives powers to local authorities to require housing, education and other departments to help in the delivery of anything under the two previous carers' Acts. So it links with previous legislation but it goes further than any Bill has gone before. I am convinced that it will make a huge contribution in enabling carers to lead that ordinary life. That is what they want; that is what they deserve; and that is what they have a right to. I commend the Bill to your Lordships.