Clause 13 - Power of Secretary of State and National Assembly for Wales to give financial assistance for purposes related to education or childcare
Education Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale West, Conservative)
I am pleased to comment briefly on the first group of amendments under clause 13, particularly amendments Nos. 170 and 174. I think that my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Turner) was driving in the same direction with his amendment.
The import of all the amendments is to try to give back to Parliament an element of control over the process and over the enormous freedom that Ministers seek to disburse public funds for educational purposes. With amendment No. 170, we seek to make that subject to affirmative resolution. Amendment No. 174 states that such expenditure
''shall be specified in an order under section 13(1)''.
Similarly, amendment No. 139 suggests that that should be done by order.
It is clear that all hon. Members who have spoken, including the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough, are deeply concerned about the degree of latitude that Ministers seek under the clause. They have the ability to expend public money in virtually any way connected in whatever tangential manner with education not only in the United Kingdom, but wherever in the world they wish. The proposal is dramatic, effectively removing the ability of the House of Commons to keep any control over the Government's expenditure on education matters. They can do almost anything. We shall discuss those matters in greater detail when we deal with later amendments, but it is clear that a future Secretary of State, of whatever party, may use the clause to drive education policy in a very different direction from that to which we have been used in the past.
For that reason, the Minister must first give some detail about how the Government envisage that money being spent using powers taken under the clause. Secondly, I urge him strongly to consider ways in which Parliament can be given a say and some control over the proposals. Looking to the future and a Conservative Secretary of State for Education and Skills, I might welcome the purposes to which the clause may be put; the Minister might not. I hope that we agree that in the event of a Secretary of State's seeking to use these wide powers to spend public money in whatever way, the House should be able to scrutinise what is being done and should have some right to approve whatever policy is being undertaken.
The Minister is listening intently. I hope that I am striking a chord and that, rather than all power to spend public funds in this respect being taken as a matter of discretion, he will agree, on reflection, that there is a way to bring proper democratic control and accountability to clause 13.