Clause 2
Education and Skills Bill
5:00 pm
Nick Gibb (Shadow Minister, Children, Schools and Families; Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, Conservative)
At the moment, the legislation created by Whitehall is very draconian and applies to the person. The amendment would alleviate the duties imposed on the young person. All the Minister has spoken about is issuing guidance to the local authority about the support services that they should provide, which is a different set of issues. He has not persuaded me that there is no case for providing flexibility just on the duty in clause 2. We want to ensure that we do not end up with a very unjust position whereby a 16 or 17-year-old person with a huge range of responsibilities in caring for a sick parent or sibling finds himself suddenly encountering the enforcement procedures. Both the amendments would create a much fairer and more tolerant position as far as those vulnerable young people are concerned.