Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Report Stage: Amendment 209

Parliament voted on 18 March 2025 on Amendment 209 to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill at Report Stage, which would have repealed the existing legal duty on the Secretary of State to issue academy orders for schools placed in a category of concern. The amendment was defeated by 324 votes to 107. The amendment sought to give ministers greater discretion over how to intervene when a school is judged to be underperforming, rather than requiring automatic conversion to academy status. Under the current framework, schools placed in a category of concern must receive an academy order. Removing that duty would allow the Secretary of State to consider a broader range of responses. The change would affect how failing schools in England are treated, potentially altering the pace and shape of academy expansion. The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 317 Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted opposed the amendment, providing the government's majority. The 95 Conservatives who voted supported it, joined by all five Reform UK members who voted, four Democratic Unionist Party members, one Ulster Unionist, one Traditional Unionist Voice member, and three independents. No Conservative MP voted against the amendment, and no Labour MP voted for it. The result reflects a clear government position against retaining mandatory academisation, with the opposition seeking to preserve the existing automatic academy order mechanism.