Clause 14
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)
Good morning to you, Mr. Bercow, and to the rest of the Committee. In your case, welcome back to the Chair.
At the end of the last sitting, as you indicated, Mr. Bercow, we came on to an important part of the Bill dealing with the information that must be provided to local authorities by a variety of organisations, with some of the information to be provided within local authorities from one department to another. The hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton raised some legitimate concerns regarding the Bill’s rather sweeping powers to require information to be passed over. I shall be surprised if we do not return to some of those specific matters, not only in the course of our discussions this morning, but in another place.
The hon. Gentleman was kind enough to indicate that he supports amendment No. 170, tabled by me and my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, West, which would have the effect of requiring the information passed by institutions in respect of their pupils or students to a local authority to be
“relevant to assessing their educational and support needs.”
The fact that the amendment is necessary highlights the sweeping nature of the powers that the clause appears to attempt to take. It allows an institution to pass over information of a broad nature about young people—[Interruption.] I am happy to give way to the Minister if he wishes to correct anything that I have said.
The clause is widely framed, and when one considers the type of information that educational institutions often collect and the difficult nature of their job in dealing with some young people, there is a fear that some of the information passed over may not be appropriate in the light of the powers in the Bill.