I am grateful to the Minister for her explanation, as well as to my noble friend and the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland. I am only partly comforted, though, by the Minister’s reply, because I think that if the matter were ever to get to court, the court would be absolutely clear about the meaning of "direct" and "direction" as used in Acts of Parliament. The fact that we have put in "must have regard" and have done away with "must comply" would not stand; the court would find otherwise. Could that matter be checked? It is not a sufficient assurance that the way in which the subsection is written is okay. Is there a precedent for writing a subsection in this way? If there is, has it been tested in any way? I am not familiar with the language of the subsection; I am not 100 per cent certain that it has never been used before, but no doubt the Bill team will be able to discover that.
Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Viscount Eccles
(Conservative)
in the House of Lords on Thursday, 15 October 2009.
It occurred during Committee of the Whole House (HL)
and
Debate on bills on Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
713 c395 
Session
2008-09
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
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Timestamp
2024-04-21 13:14:17 +0100
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