Clause 3 - Duty to consider parental representations
Education and Inspections Bill
2:15 pm
Nadine Dorries (Mid Bedfordshire, Conservative)
The current code of admissions contains the phrase “have regard to”, which is probably why the top 200 performing schools in the United Kingdom have no children taking free meals or children with special needs. All the schools have to do is to have regard to, and then they carry on as they wish. I fully support amendment No. 12. Stronger wording such as “act in accordance” should be in the Bill, because it will ensure that a local education authority adheres to what the Secretary of State says. There have been 23 written ministerial statements today, so perhaps we should have something stronger than that, such as oral ministerial statements.