Education Bill

Let us hope that this will not be another Dangerous Dogs Act. I am not going to suggest that Labour has not been guilty in the past of hanging proposals on to Bills as they progress through Parliament, and, as a former Government Whip, I am not going to suggest that I have not occasionally tried to lecture Ministers about the practice, but it often causes problems further down the line. We can understand how it happens. On 22 June 2011, a newspaper headline announced ““Cameron promises 'tough action' over GCSE and A-level exam blunders””, and a sub-headline added ““Prime minister says mistakes are unacceptable and assures Ofqual will rectify system to prevent further errors””. That was converted into a panic in Government, which rippled into the Department for Education, and the Secretary of State said that the Prime Minister was exercised about the issue. ““What can we do? Oh, we have a Bill going through Parliament: perhaps we can dream up a few clauses to put into it. Wasn't there a proposal at some stage to introduce fines? Let us use that: it is already half written.”” However, the proposal was never properly scrutinised. It should have been subjected to proper pre-legislative scrutiny. As I have said, we are not going to oppose the amendments, but I want to record our concern that something that the Government said they would not do is happening now, before our very eyes.