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Education and Skills Bill

My Lords, I intend to say little more than, ““Thank you very much””. However, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has expressed concerns that this power could have had a serious disproportionate impact on some groups which are already overrepresented in school exclusions, such as disabled people and African and Caribbean boys. We share its concern and are delighted that the Government are going to prevent governing bodies using this power as a way of dumping inconvenient pupils. It will be important to see the detail of the regulations and the accompanying guidance. I will ask only one question about that today, because of the late hour. Will governing bodies be able to renew, in the following school year, the same power to send a young person somewhere else for the purposes of improving their behaviour? In other words, could one order finish at the end of a school year, only to be replaced by an identical action at the beginning of the following school year, thus neutralising the Government’s limitation on the power in the amendments?