My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, for his introduction to Amendment 112A and the many others in this group. Amendment 112A is important, as it gives parents the right of appeal to a local authority that refuses to accept their reasons for why their child is not being taught in school.
I am particularly supportive of the approach taken by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas: to be seen as being open and positive with parents who want to home educate their children. Some years ago, I saw an excellent example while on a study tour of Education Otherwise in California. I visited the American River Charter School, an independent home school based at Sierra community college, north of Sacramento. It was a parent-driven, teacher-supported, not in the mainstream school, the equivalent of an FE college. Many of the students participate in educational field trips and come together to do lab work with supervising teachers, but only if the parents want it.
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The result is that, through links with the local authorities, the pupils participate much more widely in sports programmes and other elements that are not
available in the UK—at least, I have not encountered them. Services and resources are provided to students through a dedicated budget of instructional funds allocated to enrolled students by the school’s board.
Amendment 130 discusses the issue that I raised two groups ago: there must be guaranteed local places to sit national exams for “educated otherwise” students. I am glad to see that here and hope the Minister takes on board the importance of that happening.
Amendments 130A and 134A, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, provide for the transparency of data—the former on an annual copy of data related to fines and penalty notices. I agree with that.
I will briefly comment on the last group on Monday, when the Minister said that she would consider whether the register should be published and that she would come back to your Lordships. I cannot rise from my seat before the Minister sits down to say that this matter really concerns me. The publication of this sort of data should not be available to anyone and, if it is not the Government’s intention that it should not be published at all, it should not be brought into law on the say-so of the current Government. The problem we always have is that a future Government may choose to publish that data.
Amendment 138ZA, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, echoes my concerns about school attendance orders, as drafted in the Bill, not making it explicit that special educational needs assessments may not have been carried out, that a child is awaiting a mental health assessment, or that—in the case that I have raised in other groups—medical practitioners have recommended that a child should not attend school. This is vital.
Amendment 143I says that the current fines system should be retained and proposes to remove lines 18 to 20 from Clause 50. The current system is set out well on the government website; it is like a ladder of clearly escalating issues: first, a parenting order, then it moves on to an education supervision order, then a school attendance order, and then a fine. It says that each parent can be fined up to £60, which might rise to £120 each if not paid within a certain amount of time. If not paid at all, you may be prosecuted. In the section on prosecution, it says you could get a fine of up to £2,500, a community order or a jail sentence of up to three months, and that the court could also give you a parenting order.
However, Clause 50 of the Bill goes way further than that. It says a person may be liable
“to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale, or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 51 weeks, or to both.”
The jump from three months—12 weeks—to 51 weeks is extraordinary and very worrying. As an indicator, at the moment the Sentencing Council guidelines advise six months for threatening with a weapon and six months for a second offence of possessing a weapon. As I know from my experience and that of my colleagues, the person who stalked and harassed me and them for over two years, at over 100 events, was given a 12-month suspended sentence. I am looking forward to hearing the Minister explain why this enormous leap from 12 weeks to 51 weeks is deemed appropriate. Even if it is intended to be used only rarely, it seems very strong indeed. I hope the Minister will reconsider.
In the meantime, I support this amendment. If it were divided on at a later stage, I would certainly hope that these lines are removed from the Bill.