[Mr. Roger Gale in the Chair]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The Programming Sub-Committee met at five past 9 and agreed a slight alteration to the time at which we shall terminate this morning's proceedings, and I must now put that change formally to the Committee.

Ordered,

That the Programming Order of 10th February be amended, in paragraph (3), by leaving out ''11.25 am'' and inserting ''11.20 am''.—[Alan Johnson.]

On a point of order, Mr. Gale. I want to put on record an apology to the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Mr. Willis). At the end of Tuesday's deliberations, we had an interesting discussion about a Liberal Democrat amendment. I quoted a letter that had been sent to all members of the Committee by the Association of Colleges. The hon. Gentleman will accept that the association did not support the amendment and that I quoted the letter verbatim. However, having looked at the matter again at the request of the hon. Member for Newbury (Mr. Rendel), I accept that the words that I quoted were not a valid criticism of the amendment. Given that we shall have plenty of opportunity to raise clear and legitimate disagreements, I want to place on record the fact that I regret any inadvertent misinterpretation that I may have made on this occasion.

Happily, that and any issues arising from it are not matters for me, but they are now a matter of record.Clause 12 Qualifying complaints