I'll come to that point. It's a point of dispute between the Government and the Finance Committee about the provision of information. I want to make some progress before I take further interventions.

We have begun a series of reforms to make services more responsive to the individual needs of autistic people and their families. The clear majority of clinicians, professional groups, the NHS and local government who gave evidence to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee believe that the reforms we have introduced need the opportunity to work and be evaluated. That was also the view of some members of the committee in their report. I believe that our focus now must be on meeting the commitments that we have made: to complete the roll-out of the integrated autism service by the end of this financial year, to finalise the statutory code that will set new standards of care and services, and our commitment to evaluating and learning from what we have done to date.

I've written to Members this week setting out a range of our commitments to improvement and evaluation. We do recognise the call for greater consistency made by the health committee, and we have committed to do just that, but our commitment to improve will not end at voting time today. This is a commitment to the future, and I fully expect the Government to be held to account to meet those commitments. The alternative we have before us today is legislation that, despite its intent, has the potential to do harm not good. If this Bill were to progress today, work on the statutory code would have to slow down as officials would need to concentrate on the Bill instead. The consultation on that statutory code is open until 1 March, and I would encourage all people to have their say, including the points made by the Member in charge during his opening. 

We believe the code will address many of the core issues identified in the Bill, including statutory service standards and levels of support that people can expect to receive. It is also written in plain and accessible language that we cannot achieve in legislation, and the code will of course be in place more quickly than the measures suggested in the Bill. It is my expectation, subject to consultation responses, that that code will be in force before the end of this calendar year.