Education and Skills Bill

Part of the debate – in a Public Bill Committee at 5:00 pm on 29 January 2008.

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Jim Knight: If the local authority is failing in its duties, as set out in the Bill, to provide suitable provision, we would certainly not expect enforcement action to be taken, because it is not a failure on the part of the young person to fulfil their duty; it is a failure on the  part of the local authority to fulfil its duty. In effect, I am saying yes, I think it would form a reasonable excuse. I would be nervous not only about the burden attached to audit but about saying that we would not bring these measures into effect until we had audited everybody and got it all going, because we would have to wait until the very last local authority had got its provision up to scratch before we could bring in the benefits for everybody else. Our way round it—what I have just said about a reasonable excuse and not taking enforcement action until the right provision is in place—allows the local authorities that are ahead of the game to get on with it.