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)
Yes, as the hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton said from a sedentary position, that is opting out. It is not opting in, which is the thrust of the Conservative amendments. The amendments tabled by the hon. Gentleman would have a different effect from ours, although they deal with the same concerns. He has drawn attention to the fact that the end of subsection (4) is rather vague on how those responsibilities will be carried out. It states that the information held by the institution about a pupil or student can be handed over to the local authority unless the pupil or the parent of a pupil below the age of 16 has instructed the responsible person not to provide such information. As I understand it, that leaves open the questions of how young people or their parents might find out that that information will be passed over, precisely what checks and information would have to be available to them first, and whether they would have a right to correct the information and see all of it.
Those are legitimate concerns, because there might be cases involving, for example, child abuse where very sensitive information is kept by schools. I can think of cases in my constituency where imparting such information not only to an outside body, but sometimes to the parent in a case where the child has given the information in confidence, might be an extremely sensitive matter, and the Bill as it stands does not clarify what the checks and balances will be to enable that opt-out to be exercised in practice.