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Read our new page on canvassing members of the House of Lords, including tips on how to find peers with an interest in education, family life and civil liberties, and ideas for what you might say in your introductory letter. printer friendly version tell a friendMonday 8 FebruaryCommittee verdict: pig's ear/unworkable and deeply unpopular policyDebate on Clause 26, the home education clause of the Children Schools and Families Bill, took a substantial part of the final Committee session with the Labour Chair unable or unwilling to advance the committee towards scrutiny of the remaining clauses of the Bill.
Both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were in agreement over the unfairness and unworkability of the Government's proposed changes to the law on home education. MPS from all parties on the Committee paid tribute to home educating constituents and Graham Stuart noted that 244 constituencies had returned parliamentary petitions against the Government's proposals.
Click here for a summary of the main issues raised in the Committee discussion on home education. printer friendly version tell a friendSaturday 6 FebruaryOutcome of proceedings from Thursday in CommitteeThe transcript of Thursday's Committee session has now been published and can be read here.
As expected, the Labour-dominated Committee voted against accepting any amendments to change the wording of Clause 26 Schedule 1 dealing with home education or to remove the clause entirely. The only clause of the Bill which now will not stand is the clause which proposed charitable status for Academies. However, all votes were extremely close with the Government generally winning by only one or two votes exclusively from their own party which clearly indicates the concerted opposition by Conservaties and Liberal Democrats to many controversial aspects of the Bill.
David Laws, Liberal Democrat spokesperson said:
"I have reached the conclusion, along with my colleagues in the Commons and the other place, that by trying to botch together this very bad job on home education, the Government have made it almost impossible for the concerns of people outside this place to be taken into account in a sensible way, particularly as there will not even be a serious Committee stage in another place. Therefore, I say to the Government that it is inevitable that we will have to vote against this aspect of the Bill and throw out all the proposals on home education, and I hope that that is something that the Conservative party will support."
MP Graham Stuart said:
"Time and again we get the circular argument that we need registration before we can provide support. We have 20,000 home-educated children who are known to be registered with their local authority. Has that led to any provision for them? It has not."
"It is a truly dreadful Bill, but it has been a great debate. I thank the Ministers for their consideration and effort in responding, sometimes with the help of officials, to queries that have not always been made in the Committee Room. As a Back Bencher, I am grateful for that effort. I am also grateful to them for ensuring that we got to the home education parts of the Bill. I also thank my colleagues for making it so clear that, all the way to the wash-up, the Conservatives will ensure that this Bill will never become law."
It was confirmed that the Committee will report back to the House of Commons on February 23rd after the parliamentary recess. This is known as the Report stage of the Bill.
A full transcript of yesterday's meeting will shortly be available here http://tinyurl.com/CSF-Bill-HoC-Docs.
The time-lag in scheduling the Report stage means that the Bill will not have its First Reading in the House of Lords until the end of February and therefore the Second Reading will not take place until a fortnight later in March. More information about the Second Reading stage in the Lords can be found here.
Many home educators are already talking to Members of the House of Lords about the Children Schools and Families Bill. printer friendly version tell a friendWednesday 3 FebruaryCommittee Chair Receives Parliamentary Petition Against New MeasuresClive Betts, Labour MP for Sheffield Attercliffe has just been appointed new Chair of the Bill Committee. The Committee will attempt to work through the multiple amendments to the home education clause of the Children Schools and Families Bill on Thursday. In December Clive Betts appeared in the Sheffield Star newspaper accepting a parliamentary petition against the Government's proposals. 330 additional constituencies also returned a parliamentary petition, with over 200 petitions presented to parliament with other petitions being passed directly to the Secretary of State.
More information about the mass petition to parliament can be found here. A table of the amendments to the controversial home education clause can be found here. printer friendly version tell a friendView all...
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