Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, I wish, first, to reiterate from these Benches our general support for this Bill and for its main purpose; namely, to shift from cash accounting to accrual accounting. We believe this to be an extremely important shift and we are very pleased to see it. I recognise that this amendment is about the issue of audit and that the prime purpose of the Bill is not. As I said, it is about...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, I do not wish to delay the House with a lengthy speech. We discussed this matter at considerable length in both Grand Committee and on Report. We have consistently supported the Opposition on the issue of access. As I made clear on Report: "The Comptroller and Auditor General has audit responsibility, but at present he does not have all the powers necessary to fulfil that...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, on behalf of the House I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Parekh, on his excellent, amusing and insightful maiden speech. I am glad that he mentioned the issue of currency stability because it was not an issue covered in our report. I was a member of the Select Committee which put the report together. The noble Lord is absolutely right that it is an essential factor if we want to...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, from these Benches we, too, welcome the clear differentiations made in the regulation between the strategic role of governors and the hands-on management role of head teachers. I have two questions and two areas of concern. First, do these regulations replace existing regulations setting out terms of reference for governors? Secondly, I assume that the concept of strategic planning...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Blatch, I believe that the Secretary of State must be nai ve if he thought that the proposals were about standards of teaching and not about pay structures and scales. After all that has been said in this House about performance-related pay, it was clear that they were about pay as well as about...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, am I right in saying that if the Secretary of State were to use the 1986 Act, this would be a matter for devolution to Wales? It is a question of whether he uses the 1986 Act or the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Act 1991 for appraisal. If he uses the latter, I gather that it would not be a matter for devolution. However, if he used the former, I believe that it would be.
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, I was not going to speak until the next group of amendments was called, but I think it is appropriate that I should speak now to Amendment No. 20A. I thank the Minister for her remarks about workforce development. She is right that during the Bill's progress through the House we pressed amendments for workforce development to be included within the remit of the Bill and on the face...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, I beg to move Amendment No. 22A. As the noble Lord, Lord Bach, made clear, Clause 20 deals with the functions of the local learning and skills councils, while Amendment No. 22 deals with cases where the national learning and skills council wants the local council to perform certain functions "out of area". Clause 21 makes it clear that in drawing up the guidance for each local...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, I thank the Minister for his response. It is good that we have arrived at a satisfactory arrangement in relation to London. I hope that similar arrangements, perhaps slightly less formal, will obtain in other regional development agency areas. The question of co-ordination is, as the Minister stressed, extremely important. In the light of his reassurances, I beg leave to withdraw my...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, I wish to speak to Amendment No. 138. I was sad to see that the Government dropped what I felt was our elegantly worded, redrafted subsection of the Bill. As the Minister argued during many phases of discussion in this House, the additional words were unnecessary. She gave us repeated assurances, which were also given by the Minister in the other place, that the intention of the new...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, I beg to move Amendment No. 162A. I thank the Minister for the reply that she has already given to my amendment. However, in discussing the amendment, I wish to speak more generally about city academies. As the Minister rightly pointed out, this is the first time we have had the opportunity to debate them in this House. I should like to begin by discussing the more general issue. We...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, I thank the Minister for her reassurances on these issues. It is clear that if city academies are to succeed they have to be in the heart of their local communities and work extremely closely with their local education authorities. I take on board the Minister's assurances that that will be the case. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Higgins, seeks to reject the Government's amendment put forward in the Commons and to reinstate Lords Amendment No. 7. From these Benches we wholly support that proposal. Our reasons for rejecting the Government's amendment are as follows. First, far from it being simply an issue of accountability, it is a fairly precise amendment and the...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, the problem with the Focus Housing Association was that the Comptroller and Auditor General had not been able to gain access to its documentation. Difficulties in obtaining access to that documentation were discussed. It seems to me that the amendment we are considering concerns this whole issue of access to documentation.
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, I should like to join with other noble Lords in thanking the noble Lord, Lord Haskel, for having initiated this debate. I am only sorry that we have so little time in which to discuss the subject. Many speakers have raised points that I should have liked to have spoken on. The noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, spoke of the problems of staffing at universities. My noble friend Lord...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My name is attached to this amendment and I should like the opportunity to say a few words about it. I very much agree with what the noble Earl, Lord Selborne, said. He mentioned the problems with Surrey County Council. That council has changed its stance on this particular issue. Having originally granted easement at a peppercorn rent, it was then reminded by someone that it should be...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: asked Her Majesty's Government: What measures they propose to introduce to alleviate the present shortage of teachers in schools.
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for her reply and am glad that she has stressed that there has been an increase in the number of teachers, but they are mainly in primary schools, not in secondary schools. Is she aware of the fact that the average size of class in secondary schools has increased over the past three years; and that in a number of subjects, particularly mathematics and...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: My Lords, is the Minister aware that the two main deterrents to participation in higher education by those from less advantaged backgrounds are cost and lack of appropriate qualifications? Is he also aware that only 800 students from social class five acquired 21 A-level points last year? If the Government are really anxious to encourage participation by such people, is it really sensible for...
Baroness Sharp of Guildford: moved, as an amendment to Amendment No. 196, Amendment No. 196A: Line 3, after ("any") insert ("land or").