Housing and Planning Bill
Debate between Lord Sutherland of Houndwood and Baroness Williams of Trafford
Lord Sutherland of Houndwood (CB)
My Lords, before the noble Baroness finally sits down, perhaps I may indulge myself with a comment on procedure. This is not my patch, which I am here to learn, but we have been here before. There was a very similar procedural wrangle and difficulty over the Childcare Bill. The Bill came forward without sufficient detail to allow the House to debate fully some of the very important issues in it. There was a common mind with the Government and, I think, around the House that two factors could alleviate the problem. One was affirmative resolution, which was agreed for many of the regulations; the other was groups of people convened by the two Ministers responsible to talk through the process of developing regulation and implementation. I think that helped immensely and I hope that something similar could be done here.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
I thank the noble Lord for his information. As I have just said, I will bring forward as much as possible, but I have also undertaken to meet noble Lords to discuss matters for regulations as we go forward.
Higher Education: Funding
Debate between Lord Sutherland of Houndwood and Baroness Williams of Trafford
Baroness Williams of Trafford
My Lords, that is possibly a matter for the devolved Administrations to decide.
Lord Sutherland of Houndwood (CB)
My Lords, since the changes in the funding of universities have taken place, one of the problems which has come to the surface is the funding of postgraduate students. That is because undergraduates graduate and leave with a fairly large debt, which makes them unready, unwilling and perhaps unable to fund further postgraduate work. Will the noble Baroness go back to the department and look at how we can deal with this?
Baroness Williams of Trafford
My Lords, the noble Lord may be aware that the Chancellor recently announced that, from 2016, postgraduate students will be able to get a loan of up to £10,000 for their studies.