Clause 42
Education and Skills Bill
1:30 pm
Nick Gibb (Shadow Minister, Children, Schools and Families; Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 85, in clause 42, page 23, line 21, at end add—
‘(5) This section may not come into force before the Secretary of State has published a report setting out his estimate of the total annual cost of the establishment and operation of attendance panels.’.
Welcome back to our proceedings, Mr. Bercow. Clause 42 establishes attendance panels in each local authority that will hear appeals by young people who have been issued with attendance notices. It would be helpful if the Minister could expand on his intention towards the regulations in clause 42(3). In particular, subsection (3)(a) states that the panel chairman must not be a member of the local authority, which means, I assume, that he must not be a councillor for that authority. Can he or she, however, be an employee of the authority?