Clause 22 - Power of Secretary of State to impose condition as to student fees, etc.
Higher Education Bill
3:45 pm
Mr Tim Boswell (Daventry, Conservative)
There are times when I feel like going and sitting there myself.
It is important that we should focus on such issues. Whatever happens, it is a principle both of law and of good government that any penalty should be proportionate to the offence and should be connected to it. We could reasonably imagine that a higher education institution guilty of a breach on a small matter might find that the offence escalated to represent a considerable embarrassment, particularly if activities other than teaching activities were swept into the net.
I accept—and I may have more work to do on this over the next few days—that the Minister helpfully gave us an indication of the conditions that he has in mind. That is useful to have. I acknowledge straight away, before we have an argument about it, that there is some attempt to impose proportionality. My only possible reservation is the reference to the sanctions that HEFCE can impose when it is clear that an institution intends not to comply with the provisions.