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Education and Skills Bill

moved Amendment No. 53: 53: Clause 47, page 26, line 38, at end insert ““(but subject to subsection (6))”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I am grateful to the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee for its careful scrutiny of the Bill and for its report and recommendations. I tabled these amendments last week to give effect to those recommendations, as my noble friend Lord Adonis committed to do in his letter to the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, on 14 July. Government Amendments Nos. 53 and 54 ensure that the maximum amount that can be set in regulations for the financial penalty given to a young person could never exceed the maximum fine that a young person could receive in the court in the final stage of the enforcement system, as recommended by the committee. The maximum sentence that a young person could receive in the youth court is set at a level 1 fine, which is currently a maximum of £200, although the exact amount is determined in each case by the court depending on the individual’s means and circumstances. Of course, in practice, we have already said that the financial penalty for young people would be significantly less. Further government amendments in this group ensure that any regulations made setting the financial penalty that a local authority can give to an employer who has failed to comply with their duties would be subject to affirmative procedure, except where those regulations reduce the penalty. The committee in fact recommended that the affirmative procedure would only be needed for the first use of the regulation-making power and for any subsequent regulations that raised the penalty by more than inflation. However, it has proved difficult to link the provisions to inflation in this way and we have therefore gone beyond the committee’s recommendation and propose the affirmative procedure for every use of these regulations, except where they reduce the amount. I hope that, on that basis, noble Lords will feel able to consider these amendments, and I beg to move.