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Education and Inspections Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister, and I certainly will not push this matter to the point of asking the opinion of the House. I am grateful for what he has done, which is very considerable. I would simply like to leave him with the example of a parent who has reasonable justification and is recognised by the local authority as having reasonable justification. That parent cannot then alter the circumstances in which they have justified their inability to do what the Bill requires, and yet a fixed penalty of some £50 may still fall upon them. I take it that the matter would have to go to court in order for the penalty to be lifted. That is not a wholly satisfactory situation where somebody, by the very wording we have agreed, would have good reason for what they have done and would not be behaving irresponsibly. My only other niggle is that, in the actual language of the letter from the Minister to the Local Government Association, this third group is not recognised as being thoroughly responsible and decent parents who try to obey the law, but rather as having to fall into either the category of being irresponsible or the category of being fully responsible because they have done what the law asked them to. I repeat that there is this third category who I would not wish to see treated effectively as having behaved badly or, even worse, as if they had committed an offence. The Minister has hugely narrowed down the areas of concern that I had. This one area of concern remains. I am grateful to him for saying that he will try to give it further thought. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 102 [Duty of parent in relation to excluded pupil]: [Amendments Nos. 17 and 18 not moved.]