Speeches by O'Brien.

“If I can put it in my words, there is nothing in the Bill to stop the local authority applying to the adjudicator to stop the first year PAN of a new school. If I say, “I want to open my new school and the PAN is going to be X,” the local authority could say, “No, I think it should be half of X.” There is nothing to st…”

“The Minister talks about schools expanding “beyond what is needed”. How will she determine whether a school’s expansion is “beyond what is needed”? Is it the presence of any “surplus” school places in that local authority area?”

“Clause 50 is one of the elements of the Bill that we are most concerned about. The Government’s impact assessment says: “Demographic changes mean there is an increase in the number of surplus places in primary schools...We want the local authority to have more influence over the PANs for schools in their area”. For the…”

“To be clear, is it the case that under the clause the schools adjudicator will have the power to set the published admission number to zero—in other words, to close a school?”

“I can see that very easily.”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“It is not theoretical.”

“rose—”

“This is a substantive point. I am grateful to the Minister for giving way; we are doing the proper business of a Committee here. Let us be clear: the whole point of the clause is to address situations, such as those in London, where a local authority has one in eight of its primary school pupils disappearing within fou…”

“I literally just read out the Prime Minister’s own words. They are not my words. If he did not want to say them, he did not have to say them. I want to press the Minister, because I can sense that she is starting to wind up. She is talking about how many schools will go through structural intervention—in other words, a…”

“It was the Prime Minister’s words, not mine.”

“Will the hon. Lady give way?”

“I am keen to press the amendment. Question put, That the amendment be made.”

“How many will go through academisation?”

“The Minister keeps talking about private schools, but am I right in thinking that this also applies to academies?”

“Will the hon. Lady give way?”

“Sir Christopher, you are a superb Chairman. You are also a very kind and thoughtful one for those of us who are not quick enough on the draw. I will not make detailed comments here. We are abolishing something that was set up in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, and it struck me that there are related ideas …”

“I will be quite brief. Clauses 47 to 50 are all of a piece, though it is the last of them, clause 50, that we have the greatest concerns about. In the interest of time, I will reserve my comments on the other clauses until later. On clause 47, I just want to note my concerns that a rather vaguely defined duty to co-ope…”

“It is generous of the Minister to give way. To address the point that I raised in my speech, does she agree that the principle of a floor but no ceiling should apply to school support staff as well as teachers?”

“We have been on quite a journey on this clause. At the Education Committee on 15 January, the Secretary of State said that critics of the Bill were confused. She said: “It has become clear to me that there has been some confusion and some worry about what I have said in this area, so today I want to be absolutely clear…”