Schools Bill [HL]

The noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, is participating remotely, and I invite her to speak now.

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, for his introduction to Amendment 112A and the many...

I shall speak to Amendments 130 and 139 in my name. I can be pretty brief, given the comprehensiv...

My Lords, this is an important group of amendments, very well introduced by the noble Lord, Lord ...

My Lords, I shall speak to my Amendment 171X on the proposal for an ombudsman to provide protecti...

I would like to come in on Amendment 112A, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, and say I a...

My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 140 but before that I note that the debate has raised a numbe...

Does the noble Lord agree that the word “expediency” seems to display a state of mind and a preju...

I agree with the noble Lord that it could well do that. I noted the words of the noble Lord, Lord...

My Lords, I will speak briefly in support of Amendment 112A, which relates to a point that I rais...

My Lords, I may have omitted to declare an interest as chair of the Department for Education stak...

My Lords, I will clarify my position. A number of noble Lords have mentioned—and perhaps implied—...

My Lords, I suggest to the noble Lord that if we look at this as a supportive, not punitive, meas...

My Lords, I rise briefly to support the tenor of many of the amendments in this group, as explain...

My Lords, I shall come in briefly on this because I did not put my name to my noble friend’s amen...

My Lords, I support the principle of the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, tha...

My Lords, I have listened to this debate carefully, and it has been extremely sensitively present...

My Lords, I declare an interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association.

I ...

I am sorry to interrupt again, but the point about Finland is important, because many of us in ed...

I thank the noble Lord for that and would, at some point, like to talk to him about Finland. One ...

My Lords, I missed the opportunity to speak before the Front-Bench spokesperson got up. The point...

Before the noble Lord sits down, I just want to clarify or ask a question. At the moment, we have...

Sorry, I was just waiting, because every time I have tried to stand up someone has spoken. I am g...

My Lords, I thank you all for your thoughtful contributions. I start by saying that I could not a...

Before the noble Baroness finishes that point, if somebody has special educational needs—we had a...

So, as the noble Lord knows extremely well, is the spectrum of educational needs. I know that one...

I think that my amendment might have been missed out. I would be grateful if my noble friend the ...

I apologise. I referred to my noble friend’s amendment right at the beginning of my remarks and r...

My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend for those replies. I shall read them in Hansard a...

I hope my noble friend picked up the point, but if not, I will repeat it: we plan to develop the ...

My Lords, I was not trying to hurry my noble friend; I was just saying this is clearly quite impo...

Before calling Amendment 114A, I inform the Committee that the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, will...

Moved by

Lord Lucas

114A: Clause 48, page 42, line 26, leave out from “1(a),” to “day...

My Lords, Amendment 114A is the first appearance of an amendment that deals with longer time limi...

I remind the Committee that the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, is taking part remotely. I call the...

My Lords, the comprehensive introduction by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, to the wide-ranging amend...

My Lords, I will speak briefly to the amendments in this group, of which Amendments 115, 117 and ...

It is a great pleasure to follow the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Blackburn, and I absolu...

My Lords, I will speak briefly to Amendment 129. I put my name to this because I saw it and said,...

I was slightly diverted there. I am going to be very brief. I am diverted because—is Amendment 12...

I do not want to repeat much of the good stuff that has been said, but I shall just mention our A...

My Lords, I turn to the second group of amendments, starting with Amendment 128A, in the name of ...

That was fairly helpful, but we are now overly dependent on the plans; I do not think there is an...

Under the changes proposed in the Bill—if I understood the noble Lord correctly.

I turn to ...

I have a very quick question before the Minister sits down. She talked about making sure that peo...

I do not know the answer to the noble Baroness’s specific question, but I will get an answer and ...

My Lords, yet again, I am very grateful to my noble friend for her replies. I assume that the Gov...

Moved by

Baroness Garden of Frognal

120: Clause 48, page 42, line 32, leave out “15” ...

My Lords, I shall move Amendment 120 and speak to Amendments 122, 123 and 134 in my name. I can b...

My Lords, I have a couple of amendments in this group. My noble friend covered the government arg...

My Lords, this is a technical question and compassion for parents who are often struggling to dea...

My Lords, again, I thank my noble friend Lord Lucas, the noble Baroness, Lady Garden of Frognal, ...

I thank the noble Baroness for her response. I am not sure she entirely agreed with us; still, I ...

My Lords, I oppose Clause 48 standing part of the Bill to enable us again to have a full discussi...

My Lords, I remind the Committee that the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, is taking part remotely. ...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy of Cradley, whose introduct...

I was not going to speak on this group, but I am now. My noble friend Lady Brinton is right: the ...

My Lords, we are respectful of the right of parents to educate their children at home, but we can...

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, for giving us the opportunity again to ensure...

There is quite deep concern about this issue, and I wonder whether the regulations could be made ...

I can absolutely take that point away and see whether it is possible. If that is not the mechanis...

My Lords, that was a good answer, but I feel my noble friend has not addressed the reasonable fea...

Moved by

Baroness Garden of Frognal

136: Clause 49, page 47, line 18, after the first...

My Lords, I beg to move Amendment 136 and speak to Amendments 137, 138, 139, 141, 142 and 143 in ...

My Lords, I now invite the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, to take part remotely.

My Lords, I have two amendments in this group: Amendment 137D and 143IB. Amendment 137D replicate...

My Lords, I have some amendments in this group: Amendments 136A and 137A are timing amendments, a...

My Lords, I have in Amendment 143G a very simple provision that, on acquittal for breaching a sch...

My Lords, the general thrust of these amendments is to make school attendance order conditions ea...

I thank my noble friend Lord Lucas, the noble Baronesses, Lady Wilcox, Lady Chapman, Lady Brinton...

My Lords, I thank the Minister very much for her full reply. There are still some issues that we ...

My Lords, this might be a convenient moment for the Committee to adjourn.

7.35 pm

My Lords, I oppose Clause 49, and the other clauses and the schedule set out in the group, standi...

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, is taking part remotely on this group. I therefore in...

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, has already expressed the worries from home educators a...

The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, sort of said “all home educators” and I briefly want to say that ...

I did not say “all”. I am well aware that there are others, but I did not say “all”.

The noble Baroness said “home educators”. The noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, corrected by saying “...

I am really sorry; the noble Lord is going to have to check this in Hansard. I have my copy and t...

Let us agree to differ until we see Hansard.

No—the noble Lord is wrong.

If I am wrong, I am wrong and will apologise, but I make the point quite strongly that a large nu...

I do not want to detain the Committee either, but my ears also pricked up at the question of six ...

I shall speak to Clauses 49, 50 and 51 and Schedule 4, which the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, oppo...

Moved by

Baroness Whitaker

143J: Clause 53, page 57, line 12, at end insert—

“(...

My Lords, although this amendment was scheduled to be in the last group, amendments have been mov...

My Lords, the Government understand the importance of schools developing their attendance policie...

I am grateful for the Minister’s reassurance and beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Moved by

Baroness Wilcox of Newport

145: Clause 53, page 57, line 23, at end insert—<...

Good mental health is fundamental to thriving in life. I knew it from the other side of the track...

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, will be taking part remotely in this group. I invite ...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, especially today when the A...

My Lords, I will speak briefly on the issue raised by these amendments. I support the thrust of t...

My Lords, I want to raise some qualms about this set of amendments. For different reasons, I find...

For the first time, I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, in many of the things that she sai...

My Lords, the noble Lord can speak to the amendment, but he should not read out the noble Barones...

I am learning all the time, after 10 years.

Some 80% of all learning is visual. A child who...

My Lords, taking first Amendment 145, the Government recognise that some pupils, such as those wi...

I thank the Minister for her reply. Picking up on the glasses point raised by my noble friend Lad...

Moved by

Lord Lucas

146A: Clause 56, page 59, line 4, at end insert “or a family”

My Lords, large families are not a school unless they are very large families and fish. I beg to ...

My Lords, I want to speak to Amendments 147 and 152.

I applaud the Government for including...

I should like briefly to add my support to these two very sensible amendments, which would stop u...

My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendments 171C and 171D. I strongly support the amendments from the...

I shall speak to my own Amendment 149, and also speak to Amendment 152 and 171C. I thank the nobl...

My Lords, I want to embellish a couple of points particularly pertinent to the noble Lord, Lord L...

The amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, is a characteristically sensible sugges...

My Lords, I will comment briefly, following on from the noble Baroness. As usual in education deb...

It has not been dug out of an archive. I expect it to be in our next manifesto, so I expect the n...

I want to give some background, if I may. At the general election of February 1974 the Labour man...

My Lords, that was a very interesting and wide-ranging debate on a number of important issues, wh...

This is not quite the right moment to do this, but I thank the Minister for allowing me to say a ...

I am obviously cautious about speaking on behalf of Ofsted, but we have worked closely with it in...

That is a very fair answer but between Committee and Report, will the Minister just make sure tha...

I would be delighted to do that.

I was talking about how institutions might be operating se...

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for the answer she gave on my amendment. I had a lot o...

Moved by

Baroness Barran

148: After Clause 57, insert the following new Clause—