Clause 12
Education and Skills Bill
3:30 pm
Nick Gibb (Shadow Minister, Children, Schools and Families; Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, Conservative)
Clause 12 is a rather frightening clause. I know that local authorities need to know which children are resident in their area so that they can enforce compulsory education, and I realise that they need data that they can use to promote participation post-16. I also realise that much of those data are already collected by Connexions so it can fulfil its function, However, the wording of the Green Paper is rather alarming in paragraph 7.3, which states:
“In every area of the country, considerable effort is being put into identifying where young people currently are and what they are doing”.
The duty imposed by clause 12, similarly, requires local authorities to
“make arrangements to enable it to establish...the identities of persons belonging to its area ... who are failing to fulfil the duty imposed by section 2.”
Those sorts of powers and duties are always introduced with good intent, but it would be helpful if the Minister, for the record, spelt out the extent to which the duty in the clause is new, why it is necessary and why the clause is needed?