Clause 45
Education and Skills Bill
3:00 pm
David Laws (Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Children, Schools and Families; Yeovil, Liberal Democrat)
I was excited because I thought that I had wrung a valuable concession from the Minister. I believe that the record will show that he said that nobody who fell into the (b), (c), (d) or (e) categories would be dragged through the penalty process. Of course he cannot give us that assurance, because there is no such protection in the Bill. It is left entirely to guidance that we have not seen to set out how somebody will be treated who has a serious medical condition, is caring for a family member, is terminally ill, or is unlikely to benefit from the service offered. When the Minister was put under pressure on that point, he quickly rode back and said that this is all fudge and mudge. Great puffs of smoke went up in front of him and suddenly all of those great reassurances did not amount to, as the Americans say, a hill of beans—as we say in Somerset, Ohio and such places. On a reassurance scale, I think that my reassurance level is about one out of 10.
Even worse than that, we heard that the Minister can envisage that people in employment, slogging their guts out day in, day out and learning all sorts of useful skills could, because of some jobsworth Minister—referring back to the his comments the other day—end up being dragged through the courts and receiving a penalty and a criminal record. That is so monstrous and so confused that I feel I have to press the amendment to a Division.