That brings me to the real purpose of the clause, which is to deal with one particular institution: the Tyndale Academy. Because of that, it is dragging into these provisions 20,000 or 40,000 or—according to some estimates, 50,000—home-school educators in this country. I do not have a view one way or the other. I have not visited the Tyndale Academy. I have just received submissions from it that I think ought to be aired. The principal of Tyndale Academy, Ferris Lindsay, has written to my hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) stating that the Department’s first step was to write to Tyndale in an officious manner, and that the academy was threatened with criminal prosecution if it failed to register within 30 days. After that threat was withdrawn, the Department started consulting on the measures.

The principal says that the academy believes that it is being victimised by the Department in an officious, over-zealous way and that that has led to this clause, which is designed to deal with only that one institution. He states:

“The reason for such single-minded resolution on the part of the DCSF has, we believe, been because of an unstated aversion to the discipline policy at Tyndale.”

He further states:

“With parental permission, tutors at Tyndale are able to use a smack on the hand to correct a persistently disobedient child. This sanction was used about a dozen times during the academic year 2005-06. The Department recognises the legality of the  situation and, rather than prosecute the proprietor, it has sought to embrace the provision at Tyndale under a framework that would render the policy illegal.”

The academy believes that that is a misuse of departmental power and resources. There have been several hundred pieces of correspondence between the Department, the school, the local authority and the Member of Parliament for that area.