Clause 3 - Variation or Revocation of Orders under Section 2
[Part I]Education Bill
6:30 pm
Mr Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale West, Conservative)
I shall not detain the Committee. The amendment ties in with earlier amendments concerning flexibility in the innovation proposals. Earlier, the Minister unkindly suggested that the amendments were inconsistent. That is a demonstration of the huge prescience of Her Majesty's Opposition, who accurately predicted the Government's failure to support earlier amendments. They also predicted the Minister's argument that it was inappropriate to allow Ministers huge scope and flexibility because they could not be trusted to make decisions on innovation. Amendment No. 8 is an opportunity for the Minister to put those words into action. In his strong view, we need a better standard of parliamentary scrutiny of the provisions.
The amendment probes whether six years is the appropriate length of time for innovation to continue without parliamentary scrutiny, or whether three years would be more appropriate.