Part of the debate – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:10 am on 12 February 2004.
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.