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State Schools (Independence)

I accept that point to a degree, but we are talking about pupils from families with little spare household income. As I said, middle-class parents do that sort of thing all the time by way of reward, and the pupils whom I spoke to were motivated by their enjoyment of the lessons at the school, by having had good careers guidance, and by being motivated to do further study or go to university. That was their prime motivation, but some value was also attached to their getting the qualification. As I said, many parents recognise that that is sometimes an incentive when pupils have to slave over their books long into the night. The involvement of sponsors and the wider community will be crucial to academies and the trust schools proposed under the Education and Inspections Bill. Those factors was perhaps lacking in the vision outlined by the hon. Members for Harwich and for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh). This is not only about parents and teachers making decisions, but about the wider community being very much involved in how its schools are run. The academy in my constituency is sponsored by the university of the West of England, Bristol Rovers football club and the chamber of commerce. We have a real problem with the school staying-on rates in Bristol—indeed, we are way below the average, and Britain, as we know, performs very badly—so it is important that we involve potential employers and sponsors. I end with a plea to the Minister. In my discussions with Ministers at the Department for Education and Skills and the Treasury, there has been a real issue about the VAT status of academies and other schools, and I suspect that the same applies to foundation schools. Schools want to open their facilities to the community, but if they do so for more than 10 per cent. of their opening hours there is a possibility that they will be penalised and have to pay back the VAT exemption on the capital investment that they made. The Minister is probably well aware of the issue, and I simply urge him to bear it in mind when he responds.