Scotland Bill

My Lords, I am most grateful to everyone who has spoken in a very interesting debate. Given the lateness of the hour, I am sure noble Lords do not want me to respond to all the points or to repeat any of the arguments. I am very impressed by the argument from the Labour Party's Front Bench that if something has been going on for 10 years, you should keep it. That seems a very conservative point of view to me. In all the arguments about the practicalities and difficulties, all of which can be addressed and overcome, the overriding issue here is one of fairness. Why did I table this amendment? I spent a week at St Andrews. I went there nearly 40 years ago and I have to say that the students now are much harder working and much more focused than they were in my day. They are absolutely outraged by what is happening to them. Those students have a much tougher time ahead of them than any of us in this House had when we left university. We owe it to them to address this problem. I was not sure whether I would have to press this matter to a vote tonight. However, I have to say to my noble and learned friend that we debated this in Committee, when I urged him to raise it with the Prime Minister and his colleagues. Perhaps this was said in confidence and I should not repeat it, but one of his ministerial colleagues in the Scottish Office called me today to say, ““How can we help you with the Scotland Bill?””. I said, ““You can help me by accepting my amendment, or at least giving some commitment. What is your position on student fees?””. He said, ““We're waiting to see what the strength of opinion is””. On that basis, I beg leave to test the opinion of the House. Division on Amendment 1A Contents 72; Not-Contents 151. Amendment 1A disagreed.