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Education and Inspections Bill

I am pleased to speak to new clause 35, tabled by myself and my hon. Friends, and to comment on some other amendments dealing with federations. I shall explain from the outset the genesis of our concern about putting some clear definition of the schools commissioner’s role directly in the Bill. It started when I and my Select Committee colleagues became worried about the initially narrow way of envisaging the role and the extent to which the schools commissioner would be accountable in discharging it. When the former Secretary of State came before the Select Committee, we pressed her quite hard on the narrowness of the role of acting as a cheerleader for trusts and asked her how it was possible for the schools commissioner to be both poacher and gamekeeper at the same time, if I may put it that way. As was made clear and as the Government have continued to make clear, the position of the schools commissioner is that of a career civil servant. In proposing the new clause today, my hon. Friends and I are concerned to get more movement in the direction of the schools commissioner being not just a civil servant, but having a far wider and more independent remit to oversee educational provision. We believe that it should include overall monitoring of admissions policies.