Professional Qualifications Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am very glad to follow the noble Lord, Lord Fox. Like him, I was moved to draft Amend...

My Lords, to start, I do not agree with the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Lansley. I c...

My Lords, I declare an interest as a member of a professional organisation. We have before us the...

My Lords, since this is my first contribution to this Committee stage, I thank the Minister for h...

My Lords, I want to put myself on the record as one of those who would have signed the noble Lord...

My Lords, in last week’s Committee, we emphasised the need for the Bill, and not just the Governm...

As we are starting the second day of Committee, I declare my interest again as a member of the GM...

My Lords, I come to this with a slightly different perspective. Many Members of this House have c...

My Lords, I commend the noble Lord, Lord Fox, on securing this Clause 3 stand part debate. I asso...

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Fox for bringing this debate forward in such a cr...

My Lords, as we have heard, Clause 3 gives powers to Ministers to do all sorts of things, but par...

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Lansley for his amendment to Clause 13, which limits the r...

My Lords, I have received requests to speak after the Minister from the noble Baroness, Lady Noak...

I will raise just two topics. The first is trust; the Minister regretted that the Committee did n...

I thank my noble friend for those two comments and the spirit in which they are offered. I realis...

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his response. He said he would consider this between ...

I thank the noble Lord for that point. Of course, anyone who listened to this debate could not bu...

My Lords, I am grateful for the Minister’s reply to the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, which I will come ...

I thank the noble Lord for that comment. My belief is that this Bill applies only to our famous 5...

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend the Minister for his response to my Amendment 56. If I...

That is certainly a helpful suggestion put forward by my noble friend. I will reflect on it.

My Lords, this has been a very good debate—the Minister has clearly listened and responded strong...

My Lords, we now come to the group consisting of Amendment 30. Anyone wishing to press this amend...

Moved by

Baroness Noakes

30: Clause 4, page 3, line 25, at end insert—

“(1A) Re...

My Lords, Amendment 30 is a probing amendment on the abiding theme in our debates on this Bill, n...

My Lords, I am very pleased to speak in support of this amendment in the name of the noble Barone...

My Lords, I crave the indulgence of the House; I hide behind the excuse of being a beginner. I pu...

My Lords, in the Minister’s letter to the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, yesterday—which I hope has...

My Lords, I seek the Committee’s indulgence—I did not want to keep popping up in the last group—b...

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Noakes for this amendment to Clause 4. It is worth remindi...

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have spoken on this amendment. I heard the noble Baroness, ...

We now come to the group beginning with Amendment 31. Anyone wishing to press this or anything el...

Moved by

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town

31: Clause 4, page 3, line 36, after “qualif...

My Lords, Amendment 31 in a way continues what the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, and others, have ...

My Lords, I am glad to have heard the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, introduce her amendment. We bo...

My Lords, Amendment 32A, in my name and that of my noble friend Lady Garden, would require the ap...

My Lords, Amendment 55A is in my name. There are many excellent provisions in the Bill requiring ...

My Lords, I speak particularly to Amendments 31 and 32, and I commend Amendment 32, tabled by the...

My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Davies, I am also new to this House—in fact, I am even newer ...

My Lords, I start by apologising to the Committee for the discourtesy of not being here last time...

My Lords, I thank the noble Baronesses, Lady Hayter of Kentish Town and Lady Randerson, and my no...

My Lords, my noble friend Lord Davies of Brixton merely agrees with the noble Baroness, Lady Noak...

We now come to the group consisting of the question of whether Clause 4 should stand part of the ...

My Lords, I am saying that Clause 4 should not stand part of the Bill. We have now discussed Clau...

I have two brief points. I would like to speak in support of Clause 4 standing part of the Bill, ...

My Lords, we are indebted to the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, for opposing that this clause stand part....

My Lords, the Government need to justify why this clause is in the Bill. What would happen if it ...

My Lords, I note that the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, set out his intention to oppose C...

The Minister has to understand that we are wholly supportive of regulator-to-regulator agreements...

As always, I will consider carefully the suggestions made by the noble Baroness but, without want...

I assure the Minister that I have managed to work out that if two things are standing next to eac...

The noble Lord’s colleague the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, cautioned me on the previous day of Commi...

I suspect that we should be wary of what we wish for, and that the Minister is now going to take ...

We now come to the group consisting of Amendment 34. Anyone wishing to press this amendment to a ...

Moved by

Baroness Blake of Leeds

34: After Clause 4, insert the following new Clause—...

Amendment 34 is in the name of my noble friend Lady Hayter, and I thank the noble Lord, Lord Palm...

My Lords, I support the thrust of Amendment 34 and it is good to see the Benches opposite getting...

My Lords, I am a co-signatory to Amendment 34. In fact, I put the same one in because its source ...

I thank all noble Lords for participating in this short debate, and I thank the noble Baroness, L...

I have received a message from the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, who wishes to speak.

Could my noble friend the Minister explain why, in Clause 1, which we know will be applied largel...

I do not agree that that is a contradiction. This would have the effect of weakening the standard...

I thank the Minister for her full response. I particularly thank the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes,...

We now come to the group beginning with Amendment 34A. Anybody wishing to press this or anything ...

Moved by

Lord Lansley

34A: After Clause 4, insert the following new Clause—

“In...

My Lords, this group has three amendments in it, two of which are in my name. The other amendment...

Well, my Lords, we could all do with a little kindly looking on our amendments. I will speak to A...

I will speak to two of the amendments in this group in the name of my noble friend Lord Lansley. ...

My Lords, my noble friend Lord Lansley has hit upon some important issues with his Amendments 34A...

My Lords, I shall refer initially to insurance and then to the wider issue of fitness to practise...

My Lords, I too want to concentrate on Amendment 60A, the new clause proposed by the noble Lord, ...

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Lansley for tabling Amendments 34A and 60A, and I thank th...

My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have participated in this short debate. I particul...

We now come to the group beginning with Amendment 37. Anyone wishing to press this, or anything e...

Moved by

Lord Palmer of Childs Hill

37: Clause 5, page 4, line 14, at end insert—

My Lords, this provision is often described as a “grandfather” clause or policy, or “grandfatheri...

My Lords, I rather hope that the Minister will—to use the word of the Bill—assuage my fears that ...

My Lords, I put my name to Amendment 60, to which my noble friend will refer in the wind-up, and ...

I support the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Palmer of Childs Hill, in moving his Amendment 37 ...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow all those who have spoken on the amendments in this group, b...

My Lords, this has been a short but important debate. I expect the Minister to stand up and say t...

I thank everyone for their contributions in this really important area. I join noble Lords in rai...

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Palmer of Childs Hill, and the noble Baroness, Lady Blake ...

I have received requests to speak from the noble Lord, Lord Fox, and the noble Baroness, Lady Fin...

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his partial answer to my point, but he will find if he goes ba...

My Lords, to add to that, I listened carefully to the Minister when he spoke about the person hol...

I invite the Minister to reply to both speakers.

My Lords, these are both important questions which affect the rights of individuals, and so I wil...

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for their contributions to this debate, which has been incredib...

We come to the group beginning with the question that Clause 5 stand part of the Bill. Anyone wis...

I am grateful to have the opportunity to discuss more broadly the contents of Clauses 5 and 6. Cl...

My Lords, I welcome these amendments. I will start with the points the noble Baroness, Lady McInt...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow my noble friend. She highlighted extremely well the nonsense...

My Lords, the core purpose of the Bill is to update how regulators recognise professionals whose ...

My Lords, I am grateful to those who have spoken and to the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, for b...

Moved by

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

39: Clause 7, page 4, line 41, at end insert—

...

My Lords, there have been a number of interesting debates today, and this is an important one. Th...

My Lords, it is always a pleasure to follow my near namesake, the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, and e...

My Lords, I have two very small amendments in this group, both taking us back to my unfavourite w...

My Lords, I speak on Clause 7 standing part of the Bill, rather than on the detailed amendments i...

I am delighted to speak in support of Amendment 39 from the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, and I comme...

My Lords, my noble friend Lady Garden has wisely pointed out the poor grammar in the Bill. I hope...

My Lords, while I absolutely agree with my noble friend Lord Foulkes that any advice would be bet...

I have to confess that I am still surprised that this is proving such a contentious part of the B...

I have received a request to speak after the Minister from the noble Lord, Lord Fox.

I thank the Minister for her response. I am having trouble matching the words that she is using w...

Providing a statutory basis for the continued existence of an assistance centre places a duty on ...

My Lords, a lot of interesting things have emerged during this debate. The noble Baroness, Lady N...