Clause 2
Education and Skills Bill
10:30 am
David Laws (Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Children, Schools and Families; Yeovil, Liberal Democrat)
I am grateful for the Minister’s response. I raised those points because they came up when the hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton moved the amendments. I am happy for the Minister to respond as he wishes, but if he is going to produce something in writing, I urge him to do so as soon as possible. In other Committees, which have not always met the high standards that I am sure he sets, documents have had a habit of turning up rather late—sometimes on the final day of the Committee, if not later. It would be welcome to have the information well in advance.
Will the Minister also confirm that the figures that he cited regarding the enforcement mechanisms are based on the assumption that the take-up of education and training places among these cohorts will increase in line with the Government forecasts between now and 2013 and 2015? If that does not happen, and the Government are not successful in raising participation among that age group up to 90 per cent. from 80 per cent., the numbers could become much bigger. I hope that he will also say something about the relationship between parenting orders and breaches of parenting orders, where there seems to be even more optimism than about attendance notice enforcement.
As the hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton pointed out, the non-attendance rates for young people in education and training are already incredibly high for those coming up to the age of 16. About 10.5 per cent. of the year 11 age cohort are persistently absent. Although the Committee discussed what that meant—the new figures from the Government will shed some light—such statistics give us cause to be sceptical about the extent to which an enforcement mechanism will work with the most hard-to-reach cohort—the top 5 per cent. We must pause for thought about how effective these sanctions will be in terms of pursuing those individuals. That is one reason why we believe that an approach based on opportunities and entitlements, with appropriate provision offered, is not only more in keeping with Liberal Democrat philosophy, but is also likely in the long term to be more effective and meet the concerns of not only liberals and liberal Conservatives but some of the other Conservative Members.