Armed Forces Bill Committee: New Clause 2

Parliament voted on 2 June 2026 on New Clause 2 to the Armed Forces Bill, a Conservative amendment that would have required special educational needs plans for children of service personnel to transfer automatically when a military family is posted to a new area. The clause covered Education, Health and Care Plans in England, Individual Development Plans in Wales, Co-ordinated Support Plans in Scotland, and Statements of Special Educational Needs in Northern Ireland. The amendment was defeated by 302 votes to 171. The vote matters because the portability of SEN plans is a live problem for armed forces families. When a service parent is posted to a new base, the child's existing plan does not follow them automatically; the receiving local authority must reassess, which can mean delays and gaps in support for children who are already managing the disruption of a move. The amendment would have required the Secretary of State to make regulations within six months of the Act's passage to make transfer automatic, and would have guaranteed families reasonable time to negotiate a named school. By voting the clause down, Parliament left the existing system in place, with the government committing instead to cross-departmental work and voluntary mechanisms. Labour and the Labour and Co-operative group voted solidly against, providing all 302 no votes, with 101 Labour-affiliated MPs absent. The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, the Democratic Unionist Party, the Green Party, and Plaid Cymru all voted for the clause. Two Reform UK MPs voted aye, though six had no vote recorded, a point noted acidly in the debate by Armed Forces Minister Al Carns. The vote fell on the same day as several related divisions on the Armed Forces Bill, including a similar defeat on New Clause 5, which lost by 301 to 170.