LORDS AMENDMENT. (Hansard, 1 August 1944)

§ THE EARL OF SELBORNE

My Lords, in this Amendment at page 56, line 24, we come back to the provision in the Bill as it originally came to your Lordships, which I think was described by my noble and learned friend Lord Roche as a "statutory insult to the clergy." It deals with the difficult question of the inspection of syllabus teaching. You will remember that the Bill originally provided that no minister of religion could be employed to inspect syllabus teaching. That was, I understand, in conformity with the understanding that had been reached in the conferences preceding the introduction of the Bill, by which all denominational instruction was to be inspected by the Churches, but syllabus teaching was to be inspected by one of the regular inspectors of the Ministry of Education or of the local education authority. But your Lordships felt that the Bill as it came to us expressed this principle in an exceedingly unfortunate manner, and words were put in on the Report stage which were intended to maintain the original understanding on which the clause had been drafted but without what my noble friend Lord Roche described as the "statutory insult." On further investigation, it was found that these words did not quite achieve the purpose, and, therefore, the Commons have proposed to amend your Lordships' Amendment as shown on the Order Paper. I understand that all the authorities concerned have been consulted about this and that this further compromise is acceptable to all parties. Therefore, I hope that your Lordships will agree to the proposed Amendments.