Clause 5 - Duty to inspect certain schools at prescribed levels
Education Bill [Lords]
10:15 am
Mr Colin Pickthall (PPS (Rt Hon Jack Straw, Secretary of State), Foreign & Commonwealth Office; West Lancashire, Labour)
We are debating the chief inspector’s duty to be responsible for inspection and reports. Although the present chief inspector is clearly irreproachable, that was not always the case, and it might not be in future. What assurance is there in the Bill, and in the Acts from which it has taken parts, that no maverick future chief inspector will be able to make substantial and arbitrary changes to reports made by his inspectorate? In the past, changes have been made to suit a personal agenda, and in some cases, the schools—one of them was a teacher training institution—that were the subjects of the reports were severely damaged. I imply no criticism or shadow of blame to the present chief inspector, but he will not always be there.