Clause 40
10:30 am
Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole, Liberal Democrat)
This group of amendments probe the apparent contradictions between the wording in the Learning and Skills Act 2000 and the Bill. Clauses 40 and 41 replace provisions in that Act—in particular, sections 2, 3 and 13—which will be repealed. Clauses 40 and 41 do not follow the same wording as those provisions in the Act and it is not easy to judge whether the differences are necessary, or appropriate, in view of the shift in the Education and Skills Act 2008 from the entitlement for 16 to 19-year-olds to participate in education, to a duty for them to participate in education and training.
I would like to expand on amendments 251 and 253, because they both require that the word “reasonable” be omitted. With the previous legislation, there were two qualities required for education and training: that they must be suitable and that they must be enough to meet the reasonable needs of persons in the area. From the proposed new section, 157A(3), it is not entirely clear how the criteria for suitability is to be judged; there are criteria, but there is no guide as to what meets “reasonable” needs—that is the point that I am making. In particular, it seems to be left up to local authorities to decide whether the needs claimed by persons in their area are reasonable. The clause uses the phrase
“reasonable needs of persons in their area”.
Does that refer to the reasonable needs of each person, or the reasonable needs of the collective of persons? It is a significant question. Judged by a reference to each individual, that might be entirely reasonable. However, it might be considered unreasonable to have to meet the similar needs of a large number of people all at the same time. That problem of interpretation does not appear to arise in the wording currently used in the Learning and Skills Act, which makes it clear that it is the reasonable needs of the individual that must be satisfied.
Removing the word “reasonable” from subsections 1 and 3 would not have the effect of obliging local education authorities to make absurdly over the top provision; the danger is clearly checked by subsections 4(e) and 5, which re-enact similar provisions of the Learning and Skills Act. The significance of the word “reasonable” in the Bill is very difficult to understand and could be dangerous when the Act comes to be interpreted. The amendments are probing amendments, but they reflect important concerns, particularly on whether we apply reasonable needs to individuals, or to the collective individuals in a particular community.