asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is their approach to the principle of retrospective legislation; and what are the implications for that approach of the provision in the Further Education and Training Bill that principals in further education institutions should have specified qualifications irrespective of when they were appointed. [HL597]

The Government consider carefully on a case-by-case basis whether it is appropriate to legislate with retrospective effect. Such legislation has the potential to give rise to unfairness and may, in certain circumstances, be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. But in other cases, it is a wholly appropriate approach—for example, where a technical defect in legislation has been identified which needs to be remedied. That said, Clause 22 of the Further Education and Training Bill is not retrospective in its effect.

This clause amends Section 137 of the Education Act 2002 in two ways. First, it disapplies subsection (3) in relation to England, which effectively means that all principals could be covered by regulations made under this section, whether they are serving or newly appointed. Secondly, it inserts new subsection (2A) which provides that regulations made under Section 137(9) may limit the period of time in which a principal may remain in post whilst obtaining the requisite qualification. At present, Section 137 does not apply to principals who were appointed before the commencement of the provision.

We intend to put in place regulations for newly appointed principals next year and, following passage of this legislation, will extend their scope to cover serving principals when they move to a new post. It is, however, not our intention to make this leadership qualification mandatory for serving principals who remain in post at this stage. If there is insufficient voluntary participation in the qualifying programme by September 2009, we may extend the regulations to include this group. Once the regulations come into effect, we anticipate that principals would have up to three years in which to achieve the qualification.

It is not unusual for additional requirements to be placed upon professionals once they have been appointed to a post, and a similar approach was taken for school heads who are now, by virtue of Section 135 of the Education Act 2002, required to obtain a specified qualification.