I'm in a pleasant position of being able to give a broad welcome to the finance Secretary's statement today, and I applaud his measured and cautious approach to this important area of policy. He's chosen what I think possibly to be the least damaging of the options that he was facing us with, and I welcome much of the detail of the statement. 

I'm pleased that work is continuing on a social care levy. We've raised this in the Chamber before. We have to face up to the problems of long-term finance in this area; it would certainly be irresponsible of us on all sides of the house not to recognise that we do need to raise large sums of money in the future to pay for people to live a dignified life in old age and infirmity. I'm very, very pleased, therefore, to see that Huw Irranca-Davies has been appointed to chair an inter-ministerial group on this topic. I've always regarded him as a very fair-minded and intellectual person, if he doesn't take that as an insult—[Laughter.] It's a complicated subject that will require a huge amount of dedicated work, and I think the right appointment has been made.