Legislate in haste … lessons from the BSF debacle

The Secretary of State has found out the hard way that decision-making in haste has many drawbacks, however important, urgent or iconic the decision seems. Let’s hope that he learns from the experience and in future makes sure that he has what he says is fully checked and proof against challenge. The whole BSF shambles was badly handled from day one, with erroneous lists and arbitrary decisions about which projects would proceed and which would be scrapped. So it’s not really a surprise that the judicial review has asked the Secretary of State to think again. Not, of course, that there will be any difference in the outcome; the Treasury is hardly likely to stump up for DfE errors. But the fact remains that there are very many schools which are just not fit for purpose and which need urgent investment; and it is with remembering that under-investment in secondary and primary schools had been endemic for very many years, until BSF and the Primary Capital Programme were introduced by the last government.