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Education and Inspections Bill

Apart from that last clause, I accept the point that my hon. Friend has made. Indeed, I also accept the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington, North (Helen Jones) made earlier. However, their points do not detract from my argument, because schools considering trust status could still hold ballots if they so wished. My hon. Friend the Member for Warrington, North mentioned regulations. In a sense, that is where the problem arises. In an earlier intervention, I asked who should be balloted. There seems to be consensus that it should be the parents of the children currently in the school, because that is the easiest way of doing it. It is not necessarily the right way, but it is the easiest. So the ballot would include the parents of children who were just about to leave, yet it would exclude the parents of children just about to join the school. Why not include the parents of children at the feeder schools? Why not include the children at the school in the consultation, particularly if it were a secondary school? Why not include all the stakeholders in the education system? In my constituency, every secondary school is already a specialist school, and there are partners—in some cases private sector partners—to be considered as well. Their opinion also needs to be taken on board. However, at the end of the day, under the Bill, it will be the local authority that decides whether the consultation was appropriate and valid, and whether the conclusions drawn by the governors were consistent with the process and content of the consultation that has taken place.