SI 2007/1289. (Negative instrument). Together with an explanatory memorandum from the Department for Education and Skills. Coming into force 25 May 2007.

SI 2007/1289. (Negative instrument). Together with an explanatory memorandum from the Department for Education and Skills. Coming into force 25 May 2007.

SI 2007/1287. (Negative instrument). Together with an explanatory memorandum from the Department for Education and Skills. Coming into force 25 May 2007.

SI 2007/1287. (Negative instrument). Together with an explanatory memorandum from the Department for Education and Skills. Coming into force 25 May 2007.

I thank the hon. Member for Harwich (Mr. Carswell) for securing the debate and congratulate him on doing so. The hon. Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh) described it as a think-piece debate, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. At times, it felt like listening to a Conservative party policy forum,...

I thank the hon. Member for Harwich (Mr. Carswell) for securing the debate and congratulate him on doing so. The hon. Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh) described it as a think-piece debate, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. At times, it felt like listening to a Conservative party policy forum,...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Leeds, North-West (Greg Mulholland), and I agree that we must not concentrate too much on structures. There is a range of issues that we need to address to raise standards, which we should now focus on in our debates. I...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Leeds, North-West (Greg Mulholland), and I agree that we must not concentrate too much on structures. There is a range of issues that we need to address to raise standards, which we should now focus on in our debates. I...

I am grateful for the opportunity to initiate a debate on setting our schools free, and I hope that it will be conducted in a spirit of inquiry and thoughtfulness. I am a member of the Education and Skills Committee and I am constantly struck by the degree of cross-party...

I am grateful for the opportunity to initiate a debate on setting our schools free, and I hope that it will be conducted in a spirit of inquiry and thoughtfulness. I am a member of the Education and Skills Committee and I am constantly struck by the degree of cross-party...

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate; I know how passionately he feels about the subject. Each year, we all have constituents who are heartbroken to find that their child or children cannot go to the school they wish to go to because the local education authority...

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate; I know how passionately he feels about the subject. Each year, we all have constituents who are heartbroken to find that their child or children cannot go to the school they wish to go to because the local education authority...

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for pointing that out; it is indeed the case. I hope that the Minister and other Members will join together if not in the Lobby, then in this Chamber today, to find some consensus on how to improve education. It needs to be...

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for pointing that out; it is indeed the case. I hope that the Minister and other Members will join together if not in the Lobby, then in this Chamber today, to find some consensus on how to improve education. It needs to be...

The hon. Gentleman did not vote with me. The only other person on the Government Benches who voted with him is the Minister, and I would expect that.

The hon. Gentleman did not vote with me. The only other person on the Government Benches who voted with him is the Minister, and I would expect that.

I am a governor of a secondary school in Taunton. We recently had to appoint a new head teacher, and I was amazed by how little discretion the governors had in deciding the salary. Drawing on the point that the hon. Gentleman was making about allowing head teachers and governing...

I am a governor of a secondary school in Taunton. We recently had to appoint a new head teacher, and I was amazed by how little discretion the governors had in deciding the salary. Drawing on the point that the hon. Gentleman was making about allowing head teachers and governing...

I believe that if we gave schools the ability to manage their own admissions, in a few instances safeguards would need to be built in. For example, in a remote rural village where there was no effective choice, safeguards might be needed to ensure that no child was left out...

I believe that if we gave schools the ability to manage their own admissions, in a few instances safeguards would need to be built in. For example, in a remote rural village where there was no effective choice, safeguards might be needed to ensure that no child was left out...

A moment ago, the hon. Gentleman suggested that a characteristic of an ideal system would be parents being able to get their children into the school of their choice, but he went on to speak of schools having their own admission criteria. Would not that mean schools selecting children rather...

A moment ago, the hon. Gentleman suggested that a characteristic of an ideal system would be parents being able to get their children into the school of their choice, but he went on to speak of schools having their own admission criteria. Would not that mean schools selecting children rather...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I and many other Members have been approached an extraordinary number of times by parents who cannot understand why they are not allowed to exercise effective choice because of arbitrary boundaries and catchment areas. The system is wrong, and it needs to be changed....

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I and many other Members have been approached an extraordinary number of times by parents who cannot understand why they are not allowed to exercise effective choice because of arbitrary boundaries and catchment areas. The system is wrong, and it needs to be changed....

I do not think that that would happen. If the model that my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich discussed were accepted, and head teachers had genuinely independent powers over their curriculum, is it really believable that every school in an entire county or large town would follow the same...

I do not think that that would happen. If the model that my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich discussed were accepted, and head teachers had genuinely independent powers over their curriculum, is it really believable that every school in an entire county or large town would follow the same...

In response to the intervention from the hon. Member for Taunton (Mr. Browne), my comments related to what would happen if we abolished the national curriculum, which I am totally against. To take up my hon. Friend’s point about whether Ministers can determine matters, I am not saying that central...

In response to the intervention from the hon. Member for Taunton (Mr. Browne), my comments related to what would happen if we abolished the national curriculum, which I am totally against. To take up my hon. Friend’s point about whether Ministers can determine matters, I am not saying that central...

The hon. Gentleman has a well deserved reputation for being refreshingly open and frank. Will he comment on a policy that his party has promoted for much of the time since 1997? His party has not yet put the policy of having a grammar school in every town into the...

The hon. Gentleman has a well deserved reputation for being refreshingly open and frank. Will he comment on a policy that his party has promoted for much of the time since 1997? His party has not yet put the policy of having a grammar school in every town into the...

The pupil’s passport is quite a centralising, complicated, formulaic measure. I must be frank: I never entirely understood its mechanisms, and I am not a big advocate of the big Government IT projects that such a scheme would necessarily entail. Given the history of the passport scheme at the Home...

The pupil’s passport is quite a centralising, complicated, formulaic measure. I must be frank: I never entirely understood its mechanisms, and I am not a big advocate of the big Government IT projects that such a scheme would necessarily entail. Given the history of the passport scheme at the Home...

I am delighted to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich (Mr. Carswell), who has made an excellent and thoughtful speech. He is right to use the mechanism of this alternative Chamber to have an alternative kind of debate in which we are less concerned with day-to-day politics and...

I am delighted to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich (Mr. Carswell), who has made an excellent and thoughtful speech. He is right to use the mechanism of this alternative Chamber to have an alternative kind of debate in which we are less concerned with day-to-day politics and...

I began this debate by saying that I would try to bring a thoughtful spirit of inquiry to the Chamber, and I hope that we shall retain that. When people talk about grammar schools, emotions quite often take over and the debate starts to generate more heat than light. I...

I began this debate by saying that I would try to bring a thoughtful spirit of inquiry to the Chamber, and I hope that we shall retain that. When people talk about grammar schools, emotions quite often take over and the debate starts to generate more heat than light. I...

I do indeed agree with my hon. Friend. Funnily enough, yesterday I spoke at length to Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools, about this debate. He reminded me that the national curriculum was introduced for perfectly good reasons. We were concerned that kids in many parts of the...

I do indeed agree with my hon. Friend. Funnily enough, yesterday I spoke at length to Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools, about this debate. He reminded me that the national curriculum was introduced for perfectly good reasons. We were concerned that kids in many parts of the...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree with the hon. Member for Harwich that the national curriculum, whose genesis was in the time of the Conservative Government, is too dirigiste and therefore should be progressively abandoned?

Does the hon. Gentleman agree with the hon. Member for Harwich that the national curriculum, whose genesis was in the time of the Conservative Government, is too dirigiste and therefore should be progressively abandoned?