Speeches by O'Brien.

“The Minister says that the Secretary of State can shut schools in other ways. The schools authority, under this law, will have the power to set a PAN to zero. I did not hear the Minister say that, according to guidance, that should not happen. Will she say that now?”

“It is not theoretical.”

“I beg to move amendment 84, in clause 50, page 110, line 4, at end insert— “(4A) Where making a decision the adjudicator must take into account— (a) the performance of the school; and (b) whether the school is oversubscribed.””

“Will the Minister give way?”

“Of course it is a new power.”

“No!”

“rose—”

“What share of “surplus places” is too high in the eyes of the Minister? Will she set out in guidance what “too high” looks like? What is her view on too high—is it 1%, 2% or 3% surplus places?”

“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…”

“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…”

“I think Sam Freedman is a fella rather than a lady. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 48 ordered to stand part of the Bill. Clause 49 ordered to stand part of the Bill. Clause 50 Functions of adjudicator in relation to admission numbers”

“I pay tribute to the Minister for the reasonable way in which we have conducted this important debate. We have a huge disagreement with clause 50, which we think is a major mistake. We also have concerns about the process. We believe that it is better for this House to debate these big issues about what fairness is and…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. I will begin by asking a question up front, so that the Minister has time to confer with officials if she needs to in order to reply. We learned during the debate on clause 50 that, as well as existing schools, local authorities will be able to go to t…”

“I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Amendment proposed: 48, in clause 51, page 112, line 4, at end insert— “(5) After section 7A (withdrawal of notices under section 7), insert— ‘7B New schools to allocate no more than half of pupil places on basis of faith A new school for whi…”

“I rise to speak only to clause 56, which is a big old Henry VIII power. I am sure that their lordships will want to explore it in detail. In the interests of time, I have not tabled an amendment to it at this stage and I will not go into lots of detail, but it is always important to note such things. It is no small thi…”

“Harborough, Oadby and Wigston. “Harborough” is fine.”

“I beg to move amendment 85, in clause 51, page 111, line 7, after “authorities” insert “, including academy trusts,”.”

“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…”

“We heard some concern about clauses 48 and 49 in our evidence sessions. One of the issues is the potential conflict of interest between the local authority being both the regulator of the local system and, at the same time, a provider of some of the schools but not others. Sir Dan Moynihan said, “there is potentially a…”

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