Mental Capacity Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 12:45 pm on 17 March 2005.

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Photo of Baroness Ashton of Upholland Baroness Ashton of Upholland Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Constitutional Affairs) 12:45, 17 March 2005

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, wants a board and so do I. The prevailing events of the past week have prevented us reaching the final wording, but I suspect that, given another half hour, we would be there. Hence, an amendment has not been laid properly before your Lordships' House; but I shall indeed table one at Third Reading. The amendment belongs to the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, although I shall lay it. It is to his credit that we are at this point.

On membership, I agree about the practitioner role. I agree that we need to look carefully at timescales. It is always my wont not to put too much on the face of the Bill because, as times change, we may want to jiggle the membership or the timescales. What matters is that it is a board that we feel will do a good piece of solid work for us and achieve the ambition that the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, has for it.

So, on the basis that the noble Lord will withdraw this amendment, I will bring forward at the end a provision that will be agreeable to all of us.