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Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 (Consequential Modifications) Order 2005

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 (Consequential Modifications) Order 2005. The noble Lord said: The second order is made in consequence of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005, which merges two bodies—the Scottish Further Education Funding Council and the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council— to create the imaginatively titled Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council as its replacement. The Scottish Further Education Funding Council and the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council are responsible respectively for the allocation and monitoring of government funding to further education and higher education sectors in Scotland. The purpose of the merger is to create a single funding council responsible for the allocation and monitoring of public funds to both further and higher education sectors. The order amends four UK Acts; namely, the Superannuation Act 1972, the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Race Relations Act 1976. All those Acts contain references to the Scottish Further Education Funding Council and the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council. The order will amend those Acts so that they refer to the new body—the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council. That will ensure that the provisions of those Acts that currently apply to the existing councils will apply to the new council, once the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act comes into force. The coming into force date for the provisions in the Act which merge the councils is 3 October 2005. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 (Consequential Modifications) Order 2005.—(Lord Evans of Temple Guiting.)