My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Taverne, on securing this debate. If I was starting from scratch, I would not set up faith schools either. This view was reinforced when as a member of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body I took part in an inquiry into non-denominational education. In two particular parts of the United Kingdom—to a lesser extent the west of Scotland, but to a very great extent, Northern Ireland—the segregation of children has actually exacerbated sectarianism. Yesterday I visited the City Academy in Bristol, in my former constituency. Children from all communities, large numbers of them Muslim, are benefiting from a fabulous education based on the human rights principles of tolerance and respect. But my children went to a Church of England primary school and I cannot say in all conscience that, "Well, it was OK for them to attend a Church of England primary school but it is not OK for other people to go to similar schools".

Towards the end of the 1990s in Bristol there was a growing clamour within the Muslim community for a Muslim school. As a local Member of Parliament and particularly since I represented an area containing the largest population of Muslims, I was naturally lobbied to support the proposal. Two things struck me. The first was that the people calling for the school were always men; that has to be acknowledged. The second rang grave alarm bells for me during the 2002 general election when, while visiting the biggest mosque in Bristol, I was specifically asked whether I would support Muslim schools. Before I could open my mouth, one of the chief proponents said: "We don't mind what happens to our boys, but we do want this for girls". I then visited some Muslim girls attending secondary schools in Bristol and asked them whether they would like to go to the Muslim girls' school in Gloucester. They all said no, they wanted to remain in their schools where they had a choice over what kind of dress to wear and what kind of education to pursue. They also wanted to learn not only about Islam, but about Guru Nanak's birthday, Easter and other religious festivals.

All this led me to think about the profile of immigrant communities. My maternal grandparents came from Ireland and expected my mother and her sisters, growing up in this country, to be imbued with the values of rural Ireland. That led to a considerable clash within the family, which is very common among immigrant groups. Films like "East is East" and "Bend It Like Beckham" have famously and hilariously explored these issues. But there does seem to be a strong gender element to the calls for Muslim schools. While I do not know what is happening everywhere else, I do know that within Bristol the people who want them are male, while many of those who do not are the girls themselves. So I say to the Government, to my noble friend on the Front Bench and his colleagues: be very careful that this is not just about the social control of women.