Children, Schools and Families Bill

I welcome Members across the House back to our deliberations on this important Bill. I hope that Opposition Members will recognise that elements of the amendments are a result of our discussions in Committee, and that I have reflected on the points that were made and come back with what I hope are helpful proposals. As I have said, the new clause and the amendment arise from the debates in Committee. We have listened carefully to hon. Members, and are therefore proposing these important changes, which are designed to clarify the local government ombudsman's role as a provider of redress for the pupil and parent guarantees. New clause 17 will amend the parental complaints system that will form part of the redress for parents and pupils alleging a breach of the guarantees. During our debate in Committee, many Members raised concerns that from time to time, complaints relating to a school that could serve only to absorb unduly the time and attention of a head teacher and governing body, with no real potential for a beneficial outcome, might be made to the local government ombudsman. In Committee, I provided the assurance that section 207(5)(b) of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009—the ASCL Act—is already framed so that the ombudsman may decide not to investigate a complaint, or to discontinue it, if he believes that the complaint is vexatious. He will have this discretion with any complaint, including those made in relation to the pupil and parent guarantees. Having listened to the debate, however, I have concluded that it would be appropriate to strengthen this discretion to provide an even stronger safeguard for heads and governors. So subsection (2) of new clause 17 will amend the ASCL Act to allow the ombudsman discretion in cases where the complaint is "frivolous or vexatious". This will ensure not only that the ombudsman will be able to decide not to pursue complaints that are clearly not in the best interest of parties concerned—vexatious complaints—but also that he has a clearly stated power to decline or discontinue investigation where complaints obviously lack merit or would be disproportionately costly to investigate, given the potential benefits—that is, frivolous complaints. I hope that hon. Members will welcome this change. Subsection (3) of new clause 17 is a technical amendment extending defamation privilege to head teachers. It amends section 216 of the ASCL Act to ensure that any statement made by a head teacher in correspondence with, or subsequently published by, the ombudsman in a decision does not lead to the ombudsman or head teacher being sued for defamation. This small but important change will enable head teachers to be entirely candid in their views, and permit their evidence to be given and considered more openly, which can only promote the proper investigation of complaints. The amendment merely extends to head teachers the position that already applies to governing bodies and local authorities under the Local Government Act 1974 or the ASCL Act. We have made it clear in previous debates on the guarantees that it is not our intention to enable parents and pupils to pursue civil claims through the courts if a local authority, governing body, other proprietor of a school or head teacher does not meet one or more of the guarantees. However, we listened to Members' concerns in Committee—including points raised by the hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Mr. Gibb)—and we agree that this could be made more plain. The amendment will ensure that this is clear on the face of the Bill. The amendment refers to "liability in tort", which covers, most importantly, both liability in negligence and liability for breach of statutory duty. It will put beyond doubt that parents and pupils will not be able to pursue claims for damages through the county courts based on the individual guarantees in the document. It is, of course, right to say that parents and pupils already have a number of pre-existing rights, which will be unaffected by the changes implemented by the amendment. It will apply solely to the impact of the guarantees themselves. The amendment does not need to seek to prohibit a claim under contract law, as there is no way in which the guarantees can create contractual relations between schools and parents. We consider that any claim for contractual liability would be entirely unsustainable. I hope that those brief introductory remarks will show that I have listened to the points raised by the hon. Members for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) and for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, and tried to take them into account and include them in the new clause and the amendment, as I said I would.