Education and Inspections Bill

I am delighted to follow the hon. Member for Knowsley South (Mr. O’Hara). On balance, I think that my right hon. and hon. Friends are doing the right thing in giving the Bill a Second Reading. It contains principles that Conservatives can support, although the Government have clearly gone to some trouble to try to disguise them. There are other elements about which I am less enthusiastic, and I hope that plenty of time for debate will be available in Committee. That seems to be the will of Members on both sides of the House. The hon. Gentleman argued for more time in Committee, as did the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford). Indeed, the Secretary of State conceded that we needed to spend more time in Committee on the criteria according to which local education authorities can promote new community schools. This is not only a Labour debate and it is not only the Labour party that is having an internal debate to try to perfect the Bill. We want to have our say, as do other parties. We all care very much about making the Bill as good as possible. It would be difficult for us to oppose a Bill that sets out to promote Conservative themes, which we have supported for such a long time, as my hon. Friend the Member for Havant (Mr. Willetts) so ably pointed out in his opening speech, as did my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke), drawing on his experience as Secretary of State. Indeed, when he described how the White Paper chimes with previous Conservative thinking, the Secretary of State did not look as comfortable as she might have done. At one point, when my right hon. and learned Friend was quoting from the Government’s White Paper, she had the sort of expression one would have when some dreadful family secret was about to be unearthed. How could we oppose a White Paper and a Bill that set out Conservative themes such as diversity and choice in schools? Clause 2 is entitled:"““Duties in relation to diversity and choice””." It will place local education authorities under a duty to promote diversity and choice in the provision of schools. In 1992, the Conservative Government produced a White Paper entitled ““Choice and Diversity””. The Government speak of diversity and choice, but the underlying themes are the same. The 1992 White Paper identified five great themes in Conservative education policy—quality, diversity, parental choice, greater school autonomy and greater accountability. Those five themes ran through the Secretary of State’s speech today. Labour Members may not have been comfortable with that, but I felt comfortable when I heard her talk about those themes—if not some of her other themes. [Interruption.] If the Minister demurs from any one of those five themes, I would be interested to hear from him. The problem is that I am not yet convinced that the Bill will make the difference that I would like to see it make to the education of our children, especially those who live in the most difficult areas and attend the most testing schools. Will we see the broad, across the board progress that parents are crying out for, especially in secondary education in the difficult areas? Ministers tell us that progress is being made in secondary education. Every week, they pray in aid—the Prime Minister did so today—the increasing number of good grades at GCSE and A-level. Grades have been improving, as they were before 1997. However, the conclusion that because grades have been improving over a long time standards are rising depends on the heroic assumption that standards are as high at GCSE and A-level as they were in the past. That is not an assumption that everybody finds it easy to make. It may not be comfortable for any of us to say that, but it is not a unanimous assumption—[Interruption.] Well, I shall ask the Minister directly. Does he believe that standards, in the curriculum and the results, are as high today as they were 20 or 30 years ago?