The noble Lord the Member for Hertford (Lord Balniel) was good enough to tell me what subject he intended to raise tonight. Naturally, when he told me that it was this, I was prepared to take it very seriously, indeed. Therefore, I have already done what he invited me in his speech to do—to make some inquiries into the matter. The inquiries which I have made do not at all bear out the kind of allegations which he has made to the House in a speech which was rather lengthy for this time of night. My own time is now limited. He has used a good deal of strong language not supported by any evidence for the allegations he has made.

Let me, first, make clear my position and that of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State in this matter. The appointments to governing bodies of schools in the area which we are discussing are made by the local education authority, in this case, Hertfordshire County Council which, as the noble Lord recognised, is a Conservative-controlled body. The appointments are made partly from the nominations of Mid-Herts Divisional Executive, and partly from nominations from other sources. There are also governors appointed by other bodies, foundations of voluntary schools, and so on, but I need not go into those in detail now. The Secretary of State has no role in this procedure.

Successive Ministers of Education have refused to intervene in cases of this kind over the years. The noble Lord mentioned the position under Section 68 of the Education Act, 1944, and quoted part of that Act which says that we have powers to intervene if a local education authority acts unreasonably on this or any other matter. I would only say that the word "unreasonable" has been subjected to much legal interpretation and legal advice to successive Governments, and that it is so narrowly construed that since 1944 there have been only six interventions by Ministers of Education on any matter under Section 68 and no interventions at all over the appointments of school governors or school managers.

What has happened from time to time is that a number of Ministers—and the first instance I know of was in 1947, when the late Mr. George Tomlinson was involved and there have been several since then—have deprecated the practice of any local authority packing governing bodies with members of its party, irrespective of other considerations. That is a principle which I and my right hon. Friend will support. If it were applicable in this instance, we would be prepared to condemn what has happened, but I should like to put it into this context.

A great deal of humbug is talked keeping party politics out of bodies of this kind. On governing bodies of schools, hospital management committees and all voluntary bodies in local government and public services in all areas there are members of all political parties who work voluntarily for their parties and give public service in their localities. Of course, local politics are, and should be, mixed up with appointments to these bodies. What we are saying is that we would deprecate the situation if any local authority were to exclude all its political opponents regardless of their merits, or people of no political party who had something constructive to contribute to school governing bodies and to the other bodies we are talking about.

What I suggest is that the noble Lord has fallen into the trap into which so many people fall, which is that they deprecate the introduction of party politics when it is Labour politics which are introduced, but calmly accept the situation over many years when the Conservative Party dominates bodies of this kind.

I have had a great deal of local advice and I have consulted the columns of the local Press to which the noble Lord referred. I have had advice from the officers and members of the county council and the divisional executive committee and from my Department, particularly those officers of the Department and Her Majesty's inspectors who are concerned with the local situation. All the advice which I have had, from whatever source, confirms that the allegations to which we have listened tonight are distorted and exaggerated.