Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her closing comments and all noble Lords who have contributed today. It has been a really good debate. There has been a clear passion across all Benches. We are violently agreeing that we want every young person to have the best possible education that they can and to have access to high quality education. We all agree that there is absolutely no room for complacency whatsoever and that we must always be looking to improve and to take our education system forward. Today is the first time we have been able to have a conversation since the introduction of the Bill, the contents of which, as the Minister has heard, have taken many by surprise. We have been able to air some issues and real concerns. We will go into much more detail as we start to talk about the Bill, which might undermine some of the things that she has talked about and which we all clearly agree with across the House. I point again to the experience of the speakers. The noble Lord, Lord Hampton, is a teacher and we heard from people who have set up chains, such as my noble friends Lord Harris, Lord Agnew and Lord Nash. We heard from a governor, my noble friend Lord Young; the ex-Ministers my noble friends Lady Barran and Lady Berridge; and a previous inspector, my noble friend Lady Shephard. We all want the same thing; we all want to deliver a better education. There are just some concerns that we would like to discuss further with the Minister as we go through the Bill. But I thank all noble Lords for giving their time on a Thursday for what I think has been a largely uplifting and great debate in which we heard the passion that we all have to improve young people’s lives. I thank everyone once again.