REQUIREMENTS (Hansard, 19 March 1996)

§ Mr. Spearing
I beg to move amendment No. 42, in page 2, line 18, at end insert— '(4) Such requirements shall include a duty upon an authority or other person to whom a grant is paid to publish the criteria for admission to any education provided by them by virtue of any grant under this Act, including any fees or supplementary payments relating to the admission of any child.'. This is a new subsection to clause 3, which relates to requirements that the Secretary of State may put on providers of the new so-called nursery education, which we know will not quite appear as it does today. Optimism was expressed time and again by the Government in 249 Committee as to the providers who will emerge—I will not say from the woodwork, but from the ground or from wherever—to provide all the necessary places for those who may be eligible for vouchers. At no stage have the Government told us how this will happen. In a written answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside on 15 January 1996 at column 471, they provided a table showing the large number of new places that would be necessary in addition to those that already exist in maintained nursery schools, in maintained classes and in reception classes of primary schools.
It is true that there will be some existing private places in various areas, but the figures are extraordinary. In Norfolk—one of the counties under test, and the only one outside London—there are places for at most 40 per cent. of four-year-olds now, which means that at least half the children aged four in the county will require new places as soon as the next school year. Unless my figures—which I obtained in answers to parliamentary questions—are wrong, about 10,000 places will be required in Norfolk alone.
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There may be a deficit. Perhaps fewer providers will present themselves. In time, the number of providers may increase, but we do not know. We also do not know who they will be. They might be firms from abroad; they might be supermarkets. If Compagnie Générate des Eaux can own what was the London and Brighton Railway, I suppose that it can own Brighton and South Coast Schools plc—I do not know, but it is all within the ambit of the legislation.
Importantly, there may well be an initial deficit of places, in which case it would be possible for certain things to happen. I asked the Secretary of State for Education and Employment: what guidance she has given to accepted, or potential providers of early-years education concerning selection of children, or parents, holding vouchers relating to them, when valid applications for places exceed the capacity of the settings they are authorised, or able, to provide"— the settings being the various types of accommodation and teaching available to pupils. The answer—from the Minister of State, as it happens—was thus: Places will be allocated according to providers' admissions criteria which they will be required to publish."—[Official Report, 7 March 1996; Vol. 273, c. 348.] In other words, it would be possible for an admissions criterion to be a fee or an additional fee or the provision by parents of additional sums of money for this, that or the other—which, alas, happens all too often in our existing maintained schools.
I am therefore proposing amendment No. 42, which makes the following important provision: Such requirements shall include a duty upon an authority or other person to whom a grant is paid to publish the criteria for admission to any education provided by them by virtue of any grant under this Act, including any fees or supplementary payments related to the admission of any child. I should have thought that the amendment would appeal to the Conservative party and the Government, purely on the ground that, if those conditions are available to the 250 provider, as the Minister has said, and if there is a possibility—so far as I can see, there is nothing to prevent it in the Bill—of fees or supplementary payments being charged, they would want the parents to know, would they not?
This is all about parents' choice, the choice of the different settings and the different qualifications of the teachers and all the great choices that will now be laid before us—a feast of educational choice, according to the Minister and all the apologists for the scheme. We must therefore have information as to whether there are any additional payments. I should have thought that the Government would welcome the amendment on those grounds alone—giving freedom of choice to parents who hold vouchers. Many people may be disappointed because a voucher does not mean a place. It was said in Committee that any fee or additional payment should be advertised, and there should be a provision in the Bill to show that it is a duty of the provider so to publish.

§ Mr. Richards
The amendment seeks to ensure that providers covered by the grant arrangements publish their admission policy, and fees relating to admission, as a requirement of grant.
We have already made clear our commitment, as set out in the next steps document, to make it a requirement of grant for providers to publish information for parents. I refer the hon. Member for Newham, South (Mr. Spearing) to pages 16 and 17—especially page 17—of that document. This is important, as it will enable parents to make informed decisions about their preferred choice of provider, and help to lever up standards. The document includes a list of information that providers will need to cover in their prospectuses, which includes the admission policy and, where applicable, the fee policy. Similar requirements will be applied in Wales.
I do not think, therefore, that the amendment is necessary. We are committed to ensuring that providers publish such information for parents, but it would be inappropriate to include that type of detail about the nature of the requirements of grant on the face of the Bill.
I urge the House to reject the amendment.

§ Mr. Spearing
The Minister's answer is extraordinary because, in the course of very few sentences, he contradicted himself. He referred to the so-called next steps document and pages 16 and 17, where there is a heading "Information for Parents". On page 17, it does say "fees (where applicable)" but if it is so important, why is it only in those guidelines? We have heard about guidelines before. If it is so important, and if parents are so important, and all this information is so important—especially on matters of the pocket, of supplementary money—self-evidently it should be in the Bill and thus in the Act.
I find the Minister's response so astounding that I am sure that the matter will be discussed at another time and in another place, where there is more time to go into it. I therefore beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.