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Academies Bill [HL]

My Lords, I support Amendment 8 as an amendment to Amendment 7, because it would require the Government in relation to free schools to engage in at least the same degree of consultation as they are required to engage in on conversion. In a sense, I congratulate the Government on redesignating free schools as "additional schools" because that indicates what they really are. It may not be what the Minister’s PR department would have advised him to call them, but "additional schools" raises the issue of additional resources. At some point in this debate, probably now in another place, he and his colleagues will have to answer the question posed by my noble friend Lord Knight on how the additional schools will be financed.