Higher Education Bill (Programme) (No. 4)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:49 pm on 31 March 2004.

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Photo of Phil Willis Phil Willis Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Education & Skills, Shadow Spokesperson (Education) 12:49, 31 March 2004

I associate the Liberal Democrats with the comments made by Mr. Collins and echo his remarks about the exemplary way in which Ministers dealt with the Bill in Committee. The Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education and his team addressed and engaged with the core issues in an outstanding way.

The Bill will not only change the face of higher education but set the future standard for the delivery of public services throughout the country. It is important and all of it should therefore be debated properly. The significant number of new clauses and amendments on Report are worrying, and some of the issues were not aired in Committee. The debate will last for five hours, which means that a significant number of those issues will not be voted on. Over the past few days, significant time has been spent on Opposition days and Adjournment debates in the House, and that could have been devoted to the Bill. For those reasons, we oppose the programme motion.