Clause 17
Education and Inspections Bill
7:15 pm
Nick Gibb (Shadow Minister (Schools), Education; Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, Conservative)
That goes to the root of the Bill. If we do not allow foundations to have a majority of governors, a lot of trusts will not be established. Perhaps that is the purpose of the amendment and the reason why the hon. Lady supports the amendment, if indeed she is. The effect of amendment No. 187 would be to create unwieldy trusts.
Amendment Nos. 218 to 223 would remove the right of a foundation to appoint the majority of the governing body, which would drive a coach and horses through the whole objective behind trust schools, which is to achieve diversity in the ethos and management of schools. It would also severely limit the number of charitable trusts that would come forward to set up trust schools.
Finally—I am aware of the late hour—I ask the Minister to confirm one or two things in the draft guidance that she circulated at the end of this morning’s sitting. Paragraph 8 of the draft guidance, on page 2, says:
“The Government does, however, wish to ensure that a number of safeguards around Trusts are put in place. All Trusts will be charitable and will have to have specified charitable objects around the advancement of education.”
That is a good thing to have in the guidance. Will the Minister confirm that the Government do not intend to remove education as a charitable objective? To do so would make the whole guidance meaningless. Education should continue to be one of the tenets that make up charitable objectives in the Charities Acts.
The Minister cites two statutory instruments in paragraph 8, both of which are dated 2007. When are they likely to be published in draft?