New clause 16 - Guidance on application of prohibition in relation to school transport
Equality Bill [Lords]
2:15 pm
Eleanor Laing (Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Scotland; Epping Forest, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman has raised an important issue. I agree that there is a problem, and he explained it very well—I do not usually pay him that compliment. This issue has a long history. Many Committees and Governments of different political persuasions have examined it, but there is still a problem. The issue has not been properly tackled.
There can be little doubt that discrimination exists. Some children whose parents choose for them to go to a denominational school have to travel further than they would if they did not go to such a school, so their school transport is paid for, while other children, who might live less than half a mile under the limit for receiving free school transport to a non-denominational school, are disadvantaged because they cannot benefit.
In my constituency, there is a suggestion that children who attend a school for children with special needs should not have their school transport paid for if their parents' income is above a very low threshold. It is right for there to be limitations on budgets. However, because of that—these matters always come back to taxpayers' money—children whose parents follow a particular religion and choose a particular school and type of education for their offspring, which they have every right to do, get a financial advantage over parents whose children have special needs. Those children might even need to be transported in a wheelchair or by another costly means, but they do not benefit.
I have no precise and perfect solution to this problem, and I am not certain that new clause 16 would solve it perfectly either, but it would open the way for discussion, and I am sure the Minister will appreciate that. Like the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon, I ask her to give the Committee an assurance that the Government are aware of the problem and intend to address it in the near future.