---

Education and Inspections Bill

I thank my noble friend for his reply. I think that he is being very candid. However, the devil is often in the detail and he says that he has not had an opportunity to look in detail at the three examples that I gave. I hope therefore that his department will look at them in detail and at the report of the Joint Committee on Human Rights following his helpful letter to that committee. I have immense respect for my noble friendLady Morgan, but we are not concerned about a level playing field in the sense that she was talking about. We are concerned about a level playing field in terms of the rights of the child. Our point is that the Government have taken very seriously their commitment to the rights of the child and they have made provision in the maintained sector for how those rights should be protected. Our argument is that, in the detail of the legislation, what is seen as necessary in the maintained sector is not 100 per cent followed through in the CTCs and academies. We do not doubt the Minister's good will, which he always repeats in his intention and in his letters. He repeated it to the Committee again this evening and I accept his sincerity of purpose in this respect. Our argument is that his purpose is not being fulfilled by the detail of the provision. Therefore, I hope that he will go away and see whether he can make adjustments to meet the concerns that have been expressed. To add one other point on special educational needs, I am perhaps going a little beyond the discipline that I have set myself in commenting on the Minister’s reply, but it seems unfortunate that academies should not be subject to exactly the same obligations as everybody else is.