This afternoon Caroline Ansell MP brought her Family Test Bill to the House of Commons for its Second Reading. Mrs Ansell spoke passionately about the centrality of strong and stable families to national wellbeing. She praised the Prime Minister for introducing the Family Test requiring all future policy to be checked for its impact on families. She pointed out, however, that the test is being widely ignored by Government Departments and proposed, through her Bill that the requirement to conduct the Family Test be made statutory. In this she was supported by the Labour front bench but sadly the Government rejected this proposal and, failed to acknowledge that there is only limited evidence that the test has been used since it became operational in October 2014. CARE is hugely grateful to Mrs Ansell for championing this important cause and very much hopes that the Government has a rethink and that the Bill is given time to progress. The Family Test is an excellent policy but it can only make a difference if Government Departments actually apply it.