Oral Answers to Questions

Lisa Nandy Excerpts

Monday 23rd May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gibb]

My hon. Friend will be pleased to know that we will shortly make an announcement on the details of the internal review.

[Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab)]

11. Whether the guidelines he plans to produce for the discretionary learner support fund will have a statutory basis.

[The Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning (Mr John Hayes)]

As with the education maintenance allowance, guidance on the 16-to-19 bursary fund, whose establishment is provided by the Secretary of State pursuant to section 14 of the Education Act 2002, will be issued by the Young People’s Learning Agency pursuant to its statutory powers under section 72 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009.

[Lisa Nandy]

Surely the Minister accepts that there is an urgent need for young people to have certainty as they make decisions about whether to go to college this year. Given that his own Department’s equality impact assessment said that the shift to a discretionary system could leave the door open to unintended discrimination, how will he ensure that decisions about allocation of funds are fair to students and do not leave colleges to prosecution under the equalities law?

[Mr Hayes]

By her own description, the hon. Lady is a champion of fairness, and she has been consistent in her critique of these matters. We expect schools and colleges to have regard to the guidance. They will also have to comply with equalities legislation, which means that they must not discriminate against their students on the basis of their protected characteristics, and they are subject to the public sector equality duty in section 149 of the Equalities Act 2010.