Clause 1 - School travel schemes
School Transport Bill
9:25 am
Mr Stephen Twigg (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Schools), Department for Education and Skills; Enfield, Southgate, Labour)
I, too, welcome you back to the Chair, Mr. O'Brien.
The amendment is very interesting; it highlights some of the anomalies in existing legislation and the need for the piloting approach set out in the Bill. As the hon. Members for Fareham and for Southport (Dr. Pugh) made clear, existing legislation does not give any particular transport support to someone who goes to a specialist school on the basis of passing an aptitude test. I cannot accept that pupils who pass such a test should simply receive free transport. If they attend their nearest school, they should be treated in the same way as other pupils; if they do not, they should be treated in the same way as other pupils whose parents exercise parental preference.
Every comprehensive school in the country is obliged to provide the full national curriculum, and we expect our plans for greater diversity and freedom for schools to drive up standards. If the amendment were agreed to, we might find parents applying for places in specialist schools some distance from home simply because that would secure free transport, and that could distort the admissions system. A further problem is that school travel schemes are likely to propose charges based on ability to pay rather than on the characteristics of the school attended or on pupil aptitude or ability. Providing free transport to pupils attending specialist schools simply because they had
passed an aptitude test would be unfair to their peers, who might have to pay even if their family circumstances were less favourable.
I hope that the hon. Member for Fareham will agree that the amendment would create division between pupils in the same school and would not reflect the sentiment of the Bill, which is that the cost of school transport for all pupils should reflect family circumstances first and foremost. In light of that, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will withdraw the amendment.