Clause 7
Education and Skills Bill
1:00 pm
David Laws (Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Children, Schools and Families; Yeovil, Liberal Democrat)
The Minister calls it flexibility. I call it confusion, potentially, in the way in which the duty may be implemented in the future. I shall not labour the point, Mr. Bercow, not only because I may try your patience, but because there may be other opportunities later in the Bill to clarify the point by way of amendments.
May I prompt the Minister to consider the subsidiary issue that I raised of circumstances in which the course has not collapsed, but the young person’s interest in or commitment to it has ended? We heard a lot of evidence in the evidence sessions that the rate at which young people leave such courses early on is very high. Presumably, many of those leave on a voluntary basis. Are the attendance panels and local authorities likely to take a different attitude towards young people who decide to terminate their involvement in a course compared with those whose course terminates their involvement? Will there be less flexibility?