My Lords, I want to comment on how the Bill has been handled in this House. When we saw the Bill that came from the Commons, it seemed a very trivial Bill and quite difficult to understand. The words were dry on the page and the opacity was complete: we had no clear idea what the Government were trying to do. However, during the course of the Bill, those with an interest were privileged to have a series of meetings—not just one or two, but several—with officials from the department and with the Ministers themselves, at which we learned a tremendous amount about the Bill and the apprenticeship system that the Government are setting up, which is going to cost £3.5 billion. None of this was obvious when you read the Bill. Those meetings led us to understand how important the Bill was. Therefore, I very much congratulate the department on providing a series of meetings and the Minister on the support he has given us. It is a very good way of handling a Bill in this House and has worked very well.
Technical and Further Education Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Baker of Dorking
(Conservative)
in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 4 April 2017.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Technical and Further Education Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
782 c995 
Session
2016-17
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2017-05-31 16:10:30 +0100
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