Clause 46
Education and Skills Bill
3:45 pm
Nick Gibb (Shadow Minister, Children, Schools and Families; Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, Conservative)
Before proceedings can be instituted against a young person for failing to comply with an attendance notice, the local authority must consult an attendance panel. The panel has to recommend to the local authority that proceedings be instituted. However, as we have discussed, subsection (6) requires the attendance panel first to invite the young person to make representations to it. The process contains a significant number of safeguards before criminal proceedings are started, but for some young people, even those safeguards might not be enough to avoid an injustice.
We have already debated the evidence of Barnardo’s about further safeguards such as that advocacy should be available where it is needed to enable a young person’s voice to be heard at the attendance panel at every stage of the process, especially for those with learning or communication difficulties. I will not repeat those arguments, except to say that even young people without special needs are inexperienced in putting their own case and may be intimidated by proceedings, regardless of how informally they are conducted.
Amendment No. 38 would put into subsection (6) a requirement that the attendance panel invite the young person or an advocate to make representations to it. That is all that I will say about that amendment. Amendment No. 83, tabled by the hon. Member for Yeovil, makes a similar point.
Amendment No. 87 would require that the Secretary of State set out the rules of the proceedings of the attendance panel in regulations. In particular, it refers to the hearing of representations from the young person against whom it is considering instituting criminal proceedings. As the panel will have a quasi-judicial, or even judicial, function along the lines of a grand jury in the United States, it is important that the proceedings follow the rules that apply to tribunals and courts. It should not necessarily follow the rules of formality, but it should certainly follow the rules of evidence. It should be made clear, for instance, whether the young person will be able to question the panel or the local authority that is instituting the proceedings. Clarification from the Minister on how the panels will operate would be very helpful.