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Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

We will see in time how radical they really are. What I am suggesting is that if we look at the real challenges this country's education system faces and acknowledge the huge number of youngsters, particularly in lower-income groups and among those with special needs, who are being left behind in education, we find precious little in the Bill that will make much difference to them in two, five or even 10 years' time. What I would say—the Government have been a little reticent in acknowledging this today, despite the Secretary of State's teasing by his opposite number on funding—is that the Government are moving into a period in which educational budgets will be much more restrained. Indeed, after 2011 we will probably see an end to the Government's pledge made a number of years ago to expand the education budget as a proportion of GDP, so it will be much more challenging to deliver the improvements that the Government have committed to and that many of us would like to see. We will have plenty of time in later stages to scrutinise the myriad detailed and, in many cases, quite small proposals in the Bill's 265 clauses.