Clause 1
Special Educational Needs (Information) Bill
10:45 am
Kevin Brennan (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Children, Schools and Families; Cardiff West, Labour)
I have sympathy with the idea of debating special educational needs at any time in the House. Indeed, a number of such debates have been held in the past couple of years. I give credit not only to Labour Members but to those on the Opposition Benches for raising such issues, which is entirely appropriate. It is always beguiling to be sympathetic to suggestions that we should lay down in primary legislation that Parliament should do certain things at certain times. Clearly that has happened before, as the hon. Lady for Basingstoke has pointed out.
However, I am not convinced that the best way to retain a spotlight on special educational needs is by having a set-piece, ritual, annual debate, which would soon become a routine type of debate on special educational needs, when there is already flexibility in the system for the Opposition, the Government or other hon. Members to raise debates in the House at any time. We also have the opportunity at Question Time and in Select Committees to raise issues about special educational needs in a timely and appropriate way.
As a general principle, it would be easy to extend considerably the number of such debates without necessarily producing the impact we want, but we can make that impact when we debate specific measures and specific problems in relation to special educational needs.