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Education and Inspections Bill

I may have confused the House and I apologise if that is the case. I said that we would have to have particular regard to occupations such as dinner lady, school secretary and school caretaker in respect of how we interpret what is a genuine occupational requirement, because normally there would be no such requirement. However, if someone appointed to one of those posts was, as part of their duties, also required consistently to lead acts of collective worship or carry out religious instruction, it might be reasonable for the school, in appointing that person to perform a range of duties, to make a case for a genuine occupational requirement. That would be testable at an employment tribunal, and one would hope that individuals would belong to trade unions that would help them to fight that case. I look forward to working closely with the support staff unions—which are members of our social partnership and part of the work force agreement monitoring group—on how we take forward this legislation, the secondary legislation and the transitional arrangements. We have assured the GMB, Unison and the Transport and General Workers Union that we will work with them and ensure that they are fully consulted. I accept that consultation has not been at the level to which they have grown accustomed of late.