Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

This is, effectively, the second go we have had. The previous time the Committee sat, more or less the last thing we discussed was—as the first amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Rix, puts it—these few lines in question. As the noble Baroness, Lady Blackstone, has pointed out, they merely add to the confusion and raise worries that may prove to be false. That may not be the Government’s intention but these lines are quite clearly confusing the issue. Which bits of these six lines are the most important in which situation? That is one question that we have not had answered. I gave examples from my own experience of where people say, "We can’t do it if it’s something new". There is a huge history of that in all forms of special educational needs provision—"Oh, they can’t do that because they’ve never done it". Even if the current Government are better than any Government before, which is a defence that the Government make, my standard response to that is that they should be; they have more resources, more knowledge and more ability. What is the benefit of these six confusing lines? The noble Lord, Lord Rix, pointed out that we have a good concept of reasonableness established in law, while the noble Baroness, Lady Blackstone, has said that this seems to be confusing because there are already audits and tests for what is best value for money on various occasions. Why do the Government desperately need this? If they get rid of it and go back to established principles, they will probably save everyone a great deal of time and energy.