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Education Bill

My Lords, the main points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, and my noble friends, revisit many of the issues that we discussed at length during the passage of the Academies Act last year. The current arrangements in place for consultation were arrived at following those debates a year ago and were amended to reflect points made then by my noble friend Lord Phillips of Sudbury and my noble friend Lady Walmsley, whom we welcome back to the Committee. As we said during the passage of that Act, the Government believe that when an academy is being set up there should be fair and open consultation, but we believe that those running the consultation are best placed to determine whom to consult, how, and at what stage of the process. As far as timing is concerned, an academy order is a procedural step which enables a school to convert. It does not place the school or the Secretary of State under any obligation to proceed with the conversion, and it does not mean that conversion is a foregone conclusion. The key point which we debated last year is that the consultation has to happen before the funding agreement is signed—that is the point at which the agreement becomes binding. The precise point at which it happens should, it seems to us, be left to those carrying out the consultation. I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Hughes, that it is quite difficult to foresee situations where it would not be appropriate to consult the kinds of people that she mentions in her amendment. But as we argued last year—I think it is a point made by the right reverend Prelate—we do not think that we need to specify long lists of people who need to be consulted, and that is a general approach from which we are, across the piece, trying to move away.