COMMONS AMENDMENTS (Hansard, 8 November 1989)

§ The Lord Chancellor

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 111 and 112. I shall speak at the same time to Amendments Nos. 319 to 331 and Amendments Nos. 386 and 413. These amendments make various changes to the provisions in Clause 31 and Schedule 7 on education supervision orders. Amendment No. 111 deals with Clause 31(7) which specifies the local education authority to be designated by the court in an education supervision order. As currently drafted the designated authority is, in the case of a child registered at a school, the local education authority in whose area the school is situated, that is the school authority. In any other case, the designated authority would be the local education authority within whose area the child lives or will live; namely, the home authority.

Amendment No. 111 reverses this requirement, so that the designated authority would normally be the home authority. The school authority could, however, be designated in cases where the child is registered at a school and where both the home and school authority agree. This amendment is designed to achieve consistency in various respects. First, it would accord with existing legal provisions on pupils' registration and school attendance. I believe it would also be generally consistent with the existing law.

Amendment No. 112 concerns the duty of a local education authority, which proposes to apply for an order, to consult the social services committee of the local authority. The amendment would remove so far as is reasonably practicable from the requirement to consult the social services committee in subsection (8). The need for an education supervision order is unlikely to arise in an emergency and there should be no circumstances where consultation with the social services department is not possible. Amendment No. 331 aligns the definition of "parent" in Part III of Schedule 3 with the definition of "parent" in the Education Act 1944.

Amendments Nos. 319 to 323 and Amendment No. 329 are consequential. Amendment No. 324 is intended to clarify that proper education may take place other than at school by referring to the place at which the child should be educated. This deals with a point made by supporters of education at home that education may be provided other than at a school, as Section 36 of the Education Act recognises. Amendment No. 326 provides that directions may be given at any time while an education supervision order is in force. As currently drafted, paragraph 12 might imply that an education supervisor may only give a single set of directions which he cannot subsequently vary or revoke.

765 Amendment No. 328 specifies the information that a child subject to an education supervision order and his parents would be required to give the supervisor. Amendment No. 330 makes provision for sanctions and removes paragraph 17 of Schedule 3, which is now covered in separate amendments in respect of procedure and appeals. The main Amendment, No. 238, concerns rules of court. Amendment No. 386 makes a number of amendments to the Education Act 1944 which are largely consequential to amendments in the Bill. Paragraph 7A provides for amendments to Section 40 of that Act which are consequential to the introduction in the Bill of the education supervision order. Paragraph 7B amends Section 71 of the Education Act which deals with complaints with respect to independent schools. This ensures that the notice of complaint procedure can be instigated by the Secretary of State for Education and Science against a proprietor who fails to comply with the new welfare duty in relation to children accommodated at that school, which is the subject of Amendment No. 232B.

Paragraph 7C inserts a new definition of "parent" into Section 114 of the Education Act 1944 which is consequential to provisions in the Bill. Amendment No. 413 removes the option of imprisonment as a penalty for failing to comply with a school attendance order under Section 40(1) of the Education Act 1944. This is in line with government policy in recent years which has seen imprisonment as inappropriate for this offence which, rather, may attract a fine of up to £400. Amendment No. 327 corrects a drafting error.