Clause 15
Education and Skills Bill
12:00 pm
Jim Knight (Minister of State (Schools and Learners), Department for Children, Schools and Families; South Dorset, Labour)
The hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton proposes to include in the clause a specific test of proportionality. I suggest that such amendments are not necessary to ensure that consideration is given to the proportionality of supply of information.
The Secretary of State and the local authority must both act in a way that is compatible with the European convention on human rights, according to which any interference with the right to respect and family life must be necessary and no more than is necessary to achieve the desired aim. That requires a public body to ensure, before putting in place arrangements to release information that potentially infringes that right, that the information released is no more than is necessary for the purposes it will serve—that it is proportionate. That is why the powers in these clauses restrict the information that may be shared and what purposes it can serve. In clause 15, the purpose is to enable or assist local authorities to fulfil their duties to promote participation and identify young people not participating. In clause 61, the purpose is the provision of Connexions services.
The aim of increasing participation in education and training justifies the supply of information provided for in the clauses, but every public body must satisfy itself that the extent of the information that it releases to local authorities under the provisions is proportionate to those benefits. Local authorities must also be satisfied that their requests for information are proportionate. The information that will be provided under the clauses is an essential source of basic identification information that will serve to populate the Connexions database. Together with other sources, it will be fundamental to Connexions’s ability to track young people effectively and to provide them with appropriate and timely support.
The hon. Gentleman referred again to the letter I sent to the Joint Committee on Human Rights—I am grateful to him for, as ever, assiduously doing his homework. The letter sets out our analysis and justification of the information-sharing provisions in the Bill. Local authorities are taking on new functions of promoting participation and identifying young people who are not participating so, clearly, the information sharing needs to continue so as not to jeopardise the effectiveness of the Connexions service. In the light of that reasoning, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will withdraw the amendment.