My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to debate this order today. As with all the Scotland Act orders we have considered since the start of this Parliament, this is the result of collaborative working between the UK and Scottish Governments. The order before us will be made under Section 104 of the Scotland Act, which, following an Act of the Scottish Parliament, provides the power for consequential provisions to be made to the law relating to reserved matters or the laws elsewhere in the UK. Scotland Act orders are a demonstration of devolution in action, and I am pleased to say the Scotland Office has taken through 10 orders in the past 12 months. This is a legacy of the historic devolution settlement, introduced by the last Labour Government, of which we are rightly proud.
Let me turn to the purpose and effect of this order. It is being brought forward to make provisions in consequence of the Education (Scotland) Act, which received Royal Assent earlier this year. This Act of the Scottish Parliament provides for the establishment of a new qualifications body—Qualifications Scotland—to replace the existing Scottish Qualifications Authority, or SQA. It also creates the office of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education in Scotland, removing the inspection function from Education Scotland, which is an executive agency of the Scottish Government.
The UK Government have worked collaboratively with the Scottish Government on this draft order, which is needed for the commencement of some of the provisions of the Act. The draft order under consideration today is necessary to ensure that the functions currently exercised by the Scottish Qualifications Authority can be fully transferred to the new body being set up: Qualifications Scotland. This will ensure that Qualifications Scotland is able to deliver all of the services and products that are currently delivered by the SQA, maintaining the same functional and geographical scope.
The order also makes a number of consequential amendments in reserved areas—and to UK, Welsh and NI regulations—to reflect the replacement of the SQA with Qualifications Scotland. These are needed so that existing provisions across numerous regulations can continue to operate in the same way as they do now.
Finally, this draft order is needed to designate the newly created office of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education in Scotland as a non-ministerial officeholder in the Scottish Administration for the purposes of the Scotland Act 1998. This change is needed to ensure that the person appointed to the role is a civil servant; this is required to support the delivery model for the inspectorate being set up by the Education (Scotland) Act.
This order is about making limited changes to the law only so far as is necessary to give full effect to the provisions of the education Act of the Scottish Parliament. Although the order’s provisions extend to the whole of the UK, its practical effect is limited to Scotland. Without this order, there is a risk of disrupting both the education system in Scotland and the hard work of teachers and young people across Scotland. This order is an example of devolution in action; it is about the UK Government working with the Scottish Government to deliver for the people of Scotland. In that spirit, I commend it to the Committee and beg to move.