Clause 2
Education and Skills Bill
11:30 am
John Hayes (Shadow Minister, Innovation, Universities and Skills; South Holland and The Deepings, Conservative)
The efficacy of the powers, if they are not used but they have an effect, is as a kind of threat. When challenged by the hon. Member for Yeovil about the variability of the application of the powers, the Minister said that he agreed that there was inconsistency. There is no inconsistency in their having the powers, so why is there inconsistency in the effect that those powers have when they are not used? It is an extraordinarily illogical argument to say that they all have the powers, and in some cases the powers frighten people, and in other cases the powers do not.