Clause 1 - Duties in relation to high standards and the fulfilment of potential
Education and Inspections Bill
10:30 am
David Chaytor (Bury North, Labour)
I welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Cook. It is a pleasure to be here under your chairmanship this morning.
It is a privilege to move the first amendment of our deliberations. I want to speak in particular to amendments Nos. 96, 95 and 186.
The Bill contains many admirable provisions and excellent and interesting clauses that will, without question, strengthen the provision of education for children in years to come. We know that some aspects of the Bill are more controversial than others, but I do not believe that clause 1, which deals with high standards and the fulfilment of potential and clearly specifies the local authorities’ role, is controversial. Nevertheless it contains some points of detail that need further consideration, the first of which is referred to in amendment No. 96.
Amendment No. 96 would delete from new section 13A(1) the phrase
“so far as they are capable of being so exercised”.
Although it may seem a slight amendment, which may be simply a technicality or slight emphasis in the wording, I am curious to know why the phrase should have been inserted in the first place. I should have thought that most members of the Committee would consider that a local authority’s functions could be exercised only to the limits of its capability. I do not recall seeing this kind of qualification of a body’s capabilities in respect of the exercise of its functions before. It seems at best unnecessary and at worst perhaps tautologous.