Clause 16
Education and Skills Bill
4:25 pm
David Laws (Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Children, Schools and Families; Yeovil, Liberal Democrat)
Welcome back to the Chair for this afternoon’s proceedings, Mr. Bercow. I thank the Minister for being patient and taking a lot of interventions on an extremely important clause. Judging by his answers, we have established that his view is that the powers already exist for the 13-to-19 cohort, but presumably they are used far more sparingly than may be the case if the Bill is enacted. In addition, in the present situation there is a very modest opt-out, which is covered by the Data Protection Act.
The Bill potentially extends the range of occasions on which certain information may be passed between the bodies that are set out in subsection (2) of the clause and a local authority. The major effect that the Minister says is likely to result from the clause, other than recognition of the transfer of responsibility from Connexions to a local authority, is that a much larger number of young people will come under the provisions that allow such information to be accessed.