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Education and Skills Bill

My Lords, I do not think I shall add a great deal to what my noble friend said in Committee, but I shall take this opportunity to be clear. The amendments in this group extend the right set out in Clause 129 for sixth formers in non-maintained special schools to withdraw from collective worship to all competent pupils in every school. In addition, the amendments, if accepted, would allow competent pupils to opt out of RE as well as collective worship and, for the first time, extend the statutory rights to pupils of academies. Fundamentally, they would change the settlement that has been in place since 1944 regarding the provision of religious education to children and young people and the right of withdrawal that may be exercised by parents. I know that the noble Baroness is aware of that, but it is not something that the Government can support right now. The amendments also introduce new arrangements for the withdrawal of pupils from collective worship. The Government recognise the value of collective worship in schools because it contributes to young people’s spiritual, social, moral and cultural development by exploring social and moral issues and their own beliefs. Collective worship is a long-standing aspect of school life, and many parents want their children to benefit from it, whether or not they have a strong Christian belief themselves. The current position in the case of maintained community, foundation, voluntary and special schools is that all pupils must receive RE unless withdrawn by their parents, as the noble Baroness is aware. All pupils should attend collective worship unless withdrawn by their parents up to the age of 16 or they withdraw themselves in the sixth form. Clause 129 replicates these provisions for pupils at non-maintained special schools so that all maintained schools and non-maintained special schools would be placed on the same footing. The Government judge that there is no good reason for children in non-maintained and maintained special schools to have different rights in relation to collective worship. These amendments reproduce similar ones debated in Committee. Indeed, the noble Baroness reminded us of a debate, which noble Lords may remember, during the passage of the Education and Inspections Act in 2006. At that time, the Government agreed with the noble Baroness that there was a case for extending the right of withdrawal from collective worship to children over compulsory school age, and we duly brought forward amendments to the Bill. Noble Lords on both sides of the Committee recognised the difficulties that would result from the amendments currently before us, and my noble friend Lord Adonis made clear that the intention behind them was a step too far. Over the Summer Recess, the Government’s position has not changed. We believe that the balance has been struck in the right place by allowing sixth form pupils to withdraw themselves from collective worship. As noble Lords may recognise, religious education is a distinctly different issue that relates to the content of the schools’ curriculum. A non-statutory national framework for religious education now seeks to ensure that children gain a broad and balanced understanding of religion. More local standing advisory councils on religious education are now adopting syllabuses based on that framework. We welcome that development and see no case for changing the law at present to provide children with an opt-out from religious education.