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Education and Skills Bill

We have a compulsory school leaving age, and it is compulsory for people under the age of 16 to go to school. That does not mean that some do not truant or that we do not enforce against parents to ensure that they comply with the requirement to ensure that their children receive a proper education, be it at home or at school. It is not necessarily helpful to speculate on how that translates into numbers. My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary told me that earlier today she met the Education Minister for the Netherlands, which brought in these measures two years ago. The experience there so far is that there is little need for enforcement. As we have said, the introduction of compulsion has changed the system. People are not asked whether they will stay on after 16, but what they will do in terms of their learning and education after that age. That is exactly the transformation that we seek to achieve. I hope that, like his colleagues in the other place, the hon. Gentleman will support the changes that we have made. I was very grateful to Baroness Morris of Bolton for thanking not only me, but"““the Bill team for its help throughout the Bill but particularly on this issue, and the officials at the Ministry of Justice for their time and patience in reaching this conclusion.””—[Official Report, House of Lords, 11 November 2008; Vol. 705, c. 556.]" She was very gracious in her remarks as she decided no longer to oppose our changes. However, if the Opposition feel as strongly about these provisions as the hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr. Stuart) does, they should vote against them today. Questions were also asked about the level of fines and fees and the issue of reasonable excuse. The fine in the youth court on conviction would be a level 1 fine, and the maximum is currently £200, but it is determined according to means in each individual case—one of the advantages of the youth court route. The fixed penalty notice cannot be more than the maximum fine, but we have said that it would be significantly less. Indeed, when my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health was responsible for education, he said—on the publication of the Green Paper—that the figure would be around £50 in today's prices, and I do not disagree with that. On the definition of reasonable excuse, I wrote to the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) on 13 February, copying the letter to members of the Committee, to provide some further definition of reasonable excuse. I listed seven different examples of what that might mean in practice:"““If a young person is homeless, this could prevent them from participating in learning until they have a permanent residence and a more stable home life.""Health problems, whether temporary illness, long term disability or ongoing mental health issues, could prevent a young person from participating either for a short time or for a longer period, depending on the nature of the health problem, its effects and the kind of treatment required.""Where a young person has addiction problems they may be unable to participate until they have successfully completed treatment for these problems.""Fourthly, when a young person has secured a place on a course but it does not start until the next month or the next term, they would have a reason for not participating in the meantime.""After giving birth a young mother will need time to recover (for mothers of compulsory school age, guidance sets out that the normal period of time is a maximum of 18 weeks) and would not be expected to participate until appropriate learning provision and access to suitable childcare had been arranged.""Where a young person has caring responsibilities, they may not be able to participate, or participate for as many hours as we would otherwise expect, until alternative care or learning provision that fits with those caring responsibilities is in place.””" The hon. Gentleman mentioned young people with special educational needs. The final example is"““if a particular learning difficulty has been identified and the right support to address it is not yet secured or in place, it would be reasonable to expect that the young person could not begin their learning programme until that support was in place.””" I hope that it is helpful to have that level of detail on the record.