Patrick Grady
Main Page: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)Department Debates - View all Patrick Grady's debates with the Department for Education
(4 years ago)
Commons ChamberThroughout the development of the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill proposals and preceding White Paper, the UK Government have engaged constructively with many businesses, professional organisations and other groups, including the General Teaching Council for Scotland.
I can indeed confirm that it will not interfere with the Scottish Government’s ability to charge no fees for university students.
Well, that is a very unequivocal answer, so we look forward to that not coming back to bite them at any point in the future. I am glad the Minister is engaging with the GTCS, because in the other place the Minister has had to table an amendment to specifically include school teaching in the list of exempted professions. School teaching could be interpreted narrowly as solely relating to the education of children, but of course GTCS-registered teachers teach in many different educational settings, so will this Minister clarify whether the amendment is intended to include any institution in which teaching is delivered?
We have listened to the concerns about the Bill’s provision covering the mutual recognition of professional qualifications and have decided to exclude the teaching profession, so on Thursday 19 November the Government tabled an amendment to do just that.