New Clause 1 — Information on school provision

Part of Orders of the Day – in the House of Commons at 10:15 am on 16 May 2008.

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Photo of Christopher Chope Christopher Chope Conservative, Christchurch 10:15, 16 May 2008

I am basically relying on the answer to the parliamentary question to which I referred. I accept that the Minister did not answer that question—one of his predecessors, who remains in the Government, did so—but the Dorset local education authority's impression is that the Government do not wish to know about the Dore programme. I would have expected the Department to be inquiring into the effectiveness of the programme of its own volition. The Government have set up this inquiry and, as always happens, it is a way of trying to cover their tracks.

The Minister has not addressed why he thinks it should be left to the absolute discretion of the Secretary of State to decide what information is made available, rather than making the matter an objective test, so that any information that may be helpful could be made available. If that had been the case up to now, we would not have been waiting since 2000, when the Dore programme was first introduced, for the Government to say, "Well, there may be something of benefit in it." My concern is that an enormous amount of information is available for parents who seek it out on the internet or through their own contact. Unless this proposal is endorsed by the Government, the situation will not improve.

Everything that we are discussing in respect of the Bill and the amendments is already within the Government's discretion. The distressing thing is that a Bill needs to be introduced by Mrs. Hodgson. She chose the subject well, on the basis of her own background family experience of the inadequate provision for special educational needs, but there is nothing in the Bill that the Government could not get on with straight away. That is what I find slightly depressing. They have taken some initiative by setting up an inquiry, but we know that it will take a long time to reach a conclusion.