Clause 1

Part of Education and Skills Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:30 am on 31 January 2008.

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Photo of David Laws David Laws Shadow Secretary of State (Children, Schools and Families) 9:30, 31 January 2008

I notice the Minister is nodding, so we can be reassured that there will not be an appeal to determine whether the Government have decided that education and training is enormously beneficial up to the age of 21 or 25 and that everyone will be obliged to stay on until then.

On Second Reading, we debated with the Secretary of State the compulsion exercised in the past to raise the education leaving age from the low level, for example, 100 years ago. We consider that to be a different issue. There has never been any dispute that individuals of a much lower age than 16 count as children, and therefore that it is appropriate for the state to legislate for them and insist that they should be in education until the age at which they are considered to assume adulthood. I hope that the Minister recognises that, in applying compulsion to this group of young people, we are in much muddier waters. We grant an extensive range of rights to 16-year-olds in relation to the choices that they make. However, the Bill seems to be cutting against that.

On Second Reading, we noted that the deputy leader of the Labour party and Leader of the House had suggested that those rights might be extended in future to allow young people to vote at 16. They would therefore be considered to be of an appropriate age to have a say in the running of the country. That would add to the huge range of rights that 16-year-olds enjoy. As we are we are considering the issue of compulsion, we should remind ourselves what those freedoms are—it is important that we discuss the subject, now rather than return to it later. The Children’s Legal Centre has provided a useful list of the freedoms that  young people enjoy at age 16. I will refer only to a few of them, Mr. Bercow; otherwise, not only would I try your patience but I am not sure that I would have time to read out all the things that a 16-year-old can do.

Members of the Committee may be interested to know that 16-year-olds are afforded the following freedoms: they are considered capable of joining the armed forces; they are allowed to change their name by deed poll without parental consent; they can hold a driving license; and at the moment they can leave school, although they are still entitled to receive full-time education far beyond 16. Members of the Committee may not know that 16-year-olds are also allowed to enter or, indeed, live in a brothel; apparently, even children under the age of four are allowed to do so, for reasons that are not entirely clear. Furthermore, 16-year-olds can work full-time if they leave school; they can act as a pilot in command of an aircraft, for the purposes of flight; they can participate in private or non-commercial gaming or betting, and—it says “probably” in my notes—they can leave home without the consent of their parents or anyone else with parental responsibility.

Police officers and community support officers can issue 16-year-olds with an on-the-spot fine, so 16-year-olds are considered to be moving up into an area where the state regards them as fully responsible for their actions. They can marry or register a civil partnership. In the case of female 16-year-olds, they can purchase emergency contraception over the counter at a pharmacy. 16-year-olds can buy premium bonds, should they wish to do so. They can also consent to all sexual activity; obtain a national insurance number; travel, and apply for their own passport. I think that hon. Members understand the point that I am trying to make. That is an extensive range of freedoms and, in most respects, it indicates that we have begun to consider young people aged 16 as adults. Indeed, my party, in the way that it approaches most policy issues, generally considers young people aged 16 to have reached an adult age and therefore to be ready for the extension of voting rights.

We therefore need to think carefully, having given young people all those rights and freedoms, before we determine that, because the state has made a judgment that it is in their best interests to remain in education and training, we should pass the measures in the Bill that essentially treat young people over 16 who, in many other respects, are considered adults, basically as children, in that the state, rather than they or their parents, determines what is in their best interests. That is a big concern, and it would trouble me even if the measures were popular among young people. The Department and the Minister will acknowledge that, in the run-up to the Bill’s introduction, there was a consultation not only with people in the education and training sector and employers but with young people themselves. A parliamentary written answer in November acknowledged the response from young people to surveys about whether they agreed with increasing the education and training leaving age, and indicated that 47 per cent. of young people were against such a move, 36 per cent. agreed and 17 per cent. were not sure.

We had some discussion in our evidence sessions about different surveys and the questions that are asked, and how meaningful those surveys are. However, I think that we can probably trust the evidence of those particular surveys, because, after all, this is the Department’s  own evidence—we are very trusting of the Department. One assumes that the questions were phrased at least neutrally and, as is the inclination on these occasions, even perhaps skewed somewhat in the Department’s favour. The proposal is therefore quite an infringement of freedoms and liberties for 16 and 17-year-olds who, in other respects, are treated as adults. It does not seem to be popular or to have been welcomed by most young people. One can sum up the critique of the proposal in the terms given by the Professional Association of Teachers in their submission.