[Part II]
Higher Education Bill
4:30 pm
Mr Tim Collins (Westmorland and Lonsdale, Conservative)
As you rightly said in your earlier ruling, Mr. Gale, there is a general wish on both sides of the Committee that we should reach clause 41 rapidly, so I shall be brief.
I want to place on the record the fact that although I do not support every word of the amendment, and it will be interesting to hear the Minister's comments on its technical qualities or otherwise, the hon. Member for Nottingham, North has made an important point. Clarity about how taxpayers' money is used is highly desirable. For that reason, my party advanced the
proposition at a recent general election that all households should receive an independently verified statement on how all Government spending is allocated.
In the context of the Bill, I am delighted that the hon. Gentleman should have lighted on the concept and phraseology of the voucher as a means of explaining the system to people. I waited with bated breath for him to go a tiny step further and indicate his full support for the Conservative proposal of pupil passports, which is merely half a step away from his new clause 7.
Whether one calls it a voucher or something else, the idea of bringing to the forefront of the student's mind exactly how much taxpayers' money is being made available for his education, and making it clear to the institution that it is receiving funding because that student has chosen to go there instead of somewhere else, is highly desirable and deeply commendable. It is one of the more elevating moments in our deliberations when the hon. Member for Nottingham, North so admirably embraces and expounds Conservative philosophy. I look forward to the Minister's reply.