Education and Inspections Bill

I very warmly support Amendments Nos. 211B to 211D, which were spoken to so graphically by the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, and which bear my name. I declare an interest as president of Skill. As the noble Baroness said, transport for disabled learners post-19 has been a long-standing problem, and all previous attempts to solve it, of which there have been many, have failed. The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, referred to the review Through Inclusion to Excellence, and I hope that the Minister will agree that the Government really need to resolve the transport issue now, or all the splendid initiatives planned in the review will be at risk. If the budget previously used to send students to residential colleges goes instead to the regional LSC, which will develop centres of excellence in the region, more students will have access to more appropriate education with less patchy provision, and you will not get postcode provision. I imagine that most of the centres of excellence will be daily, except in some very rural areas, so without transport the whole project could collapse. I hope that the Minister will give an encouraging reply; I am sure that he will agree that the problem needs to be addressed. I hope that he will be able to bring forward a constructive way forward by Report.