Lord Harries of Pentregarth (CB)

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have spoken. Because of the shortage of time, I am unable to comment on individual speeches, but I hope the Minister will note the great number of people who wanted to speak in this debate, reflecting the importance of the subject; the fact that there was so much significant experience, particularly educational experience, behind the speeches; and that there was support from all sides of the House. I hope she will bear that in mind. It is good to have the Minister in the House, with her long experience in the Commons. I thank her for meeting me prior to the debate so that we could discuss how we might take this forward. The Minister’s main point was that these fundamental values are not part of the law of the land and there would be a disadvantage in making them part of it. I can understand that, but, on the other hand, one could say that as we do not have a written constitution it might be good to have something in the law of the land about these fundamental values—and we are talking about political values, not personal values, or, in the old-fashioned term, civics. Where we could look to is the guidance. These fundamental values are in guidance, and I would like to see that guidance changed in order to bring about the better wording of this Bill. I think there is pretty widespread support for the idea that we need to move on from what was appropriate for the Prevent strategy to something that exists in its own right. I hope that the Minister will work with me on possibly a change in the guidance and the important review of the curriculum and assessment to go along with that. Clearly, there are one or two issues that need to be taken forward, including engaging more nationally with youth forums and the Youth Parliament—that was a very important point. There is also the question of the devolved Governments, which was raised by the noble Lords, Lord Browne and Lord Bourne, and the relationship between these values in England and in Scotland and Wales. That clearly needs further teasing out. I again thank the Minister very sincerely for her commitment to the subject and everybody who has spoken. Bill read a second time and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.