Armed Forces Bill Committee: New Clause 6

Parliament voted on 2 June 2026 on New Clause 6 to the Armed Forces Bill, a Conservative-proposed measure that would have required special educational needs plans for children of military families to be automatically transferred when a service parent is posted to a new location. The clause, tabled in the name of Mark Francois and colleagues, would have directed the Secretary of State to make regulations within six months of the Act's passage ensuring that plans such as Education and Health Care Plans in England, Individual Development Plans in Wales, Co-ordinated Support Plans in Scotland, and Statements of Special Educational Needs in Northern Ireland follow the child to their new local authority without the family having to restart the process. The vote was defeated by 371 noes to 99 ayes. The practical effect of the new clause, had it passed, would have been to create a statutory right protecting service children with SEN support from losing that provision each time their family moves as a result of a posting. Military families move frequently and across all four nations of the UK, meaning children with SEN support can face repeated reassessments and gaps in provision at new locations, a burden that families in civilian life do not typically face on the same scale. By defeating the clause, Parliament left the current administrative arrangements in place, with the government arguing it prefers practical cross-departmental improvements over a new legal duty. The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 87 Conservative MPs who voted supported the new clause, as did 5 Democratic Unionist Party members, 3 Reform UK members, and 2 independents. Every Labour, Labour and Co-operative, Liberal Democrat, Green, Plaid Cymru, and Your Party MP who voted opposed it. There were no recorded Conservative votes against. The result reflects a wider pattern of opposition votes on Conservative amendments throughout the Armed Forces Bill committee stage on the same day, with related divisions on new clauses 2, 5, and 13 producing similar outcomes.