Speeches by O'Brien.

“That is another hugely helpful intervention, because it lets me say two things. First, the clause as drafted does not help, because it uses the words “to have”. Unless the Government accept our amendments, the fact that the kits are being given does not make any difference, because the legislation does not say that. Se…”

“Sounds good.”

“This was the main point that we wanted to make, and it is good to have confirmation from the Minister that our interpretation of the notes is correct. The notes say it “includes items required for PE and sport… even if an activity is optional, if a pupil requires a branded item of uniform to participate in that activit…”

“That is precisely what the Minister just said. She said that by having the amendment we would be allowed to have unlimited numbers of items for school sports teams. So it is clear that the measure bites in exactly the way that we say it does, which is why we need amendment 91.”

“Just to confirm what the Minister is saying, under the clause if passed, school sports teams will not be able to require pupils to own the items. In the future, schools will only be able to loan items for school sports teams to their pupils, so there will be quite a big difference.”

“I rise today, as we pass the halfway point of line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill, to find that we still do not have the impact assessment. The Bill has passed Second Reading. It is totally pointless having an impact assessment of a measure if it is produced after has Parliament debated it. The Ministers would make the s…”

“Although we still think it would be better to have an appeal to an independent adjudicator rather than the Secretary of State, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 26 ordered to stand part of the Bill. Clause 27 Data Protection Question proposed, That the clause stand par…”

“To be clear, instead of having an appeal to, say, the adjudicator, the only appeal would be to the Secretary of State, who would be acting in a judicial capacity in that respect.”

“The amendment would set up a right of appeal. A lot of other measures in the Bill have rights of appeal—we have discussed some of them in earlier sittings—and such an appeal would not hold up an order because the amendment specifies that “During the appeal period, the school will be responsible for the education of the…”

“I beg to move amendment 69, in clause 26, page 63, line 18, at end insert— “(7) A school may submit an appeal against a school nomination notice to the School Admissions Adjudicator for the reasons given in this part and for any other reason. (8) During the appeal period, the school will be responsible for the educatio…”

“The principle of having a register for children not in school has long-held cross-party support. However, as I outlined in the debate on clause 24, there are very different groups of children who may be educated at home. In our eagerness to safeguard vulnerable children, we must also make every effort not to stigmatise…”

“I beg to move amendment 62, in clause 25, page 49, leave out lines 20 to 21. This amendment would remove a requirement for the register of children not in school to include details of how much time a child spends being educated by parents.”

“I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 24 ordered to stand part of the Bill. Clause 25 Registration”

“This is a very straightforward amendment. It adds that where a local authority refuses consent, it must provide the parents or carers of the relevant child with a statement of the reasons for the decision, including an assessment of the costs and benefits to the child. Of course, we hope that would happen anyway, but w…”

“I beg to move amendment 34, in clause 24, page 47, line 6, at end insert— “(8A) Where a local authority refuses consent in respect of a child who meets the criteria for Condition A, the local authority must provide the parents or carers of the relevant child with a statement of reasons for the decision. (8B) A statemen…”

“I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Amendment proposed: 46, in clause 24, page 46, line 4, leave out subsection (3).—(Munira Wilson.) Question put, That the amendment be made.”

“I wonder whether there is some tension between the Minister saying that one reason we should not include section 17 children is that some of them are disabled, and then rejecting amendment 33 because it is right that all pupils in special schools should have to go through this consent mechanism because a lot of them wi…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“Amendment 33 would delete the requirement for children in special schools to secure local authority consent to be home educated. In contrast, amendment 35 would widen the scope of required consent from just those children subject to section 47 investigations to those under a slightly lower level of concern with social …”

“I beg to move amendment 33, in clause 24, page 46, line 3, leave out from beginning of line to “a” in line 10.”