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Education and Inspections Bill

Last time I was at the Dispatch Box talking about higher education, the hon. Gentleman and his party were supporting a policy that the hon. Member for ““Have I Got News For You”” recently described as ““bonkers””. I am pleased that Conservative Members have come down from the planet Zog and engaged in a proper debate about education. As part of that debate, let me mention that very few published White Papers end up in a perfect form, so that every chapter and verse and every dot and comma are reflected in the ensuing Bill. The whole point of a White Paper is to precede consultation, and our consultation has been very fruitful—not just the consultation among Labour Members, but consultation with Members in all parts of the House and, as I have said, with the Local Government Association. I believe that there are two extremes, and that as a result of our consultation we have found a perfect third way. We believe that the approach I have described is preferable to new clause 38, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, North, which would require a local authority to work up its proposals before knowing whether it would be given permission to enter them. I believe that that could lead to a significant amount of unnecessary work. While we accept that there may be a role for new community schools, we do not agree that there should be a mechanism allowing foundation schools to revert to community status. We have included provisions that enable the governing body to remove a trust, and if a foundation school is failing, the local authority will be able to intervene and can, if necessary, close the school and trigger a new competition. For those reasons, we shall resist new clause 23 and amendments Nos. 12 to 14.