It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Upminster (Angela Watkinson), who always speaks with good sense, based on good experience, on these matters. I want to associate myself with those who have said that this is an historic opportunity. The Government are legislating to change the...

It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Upminster (Angela Watkinson), who always speaks with good sense, based on good experience, on these matters. I want to associate myself with those who have said that this is an historic opportunity. The Government are legislating to change the...

I entirely agree with the caution expressed by my hon. Friend, but would he care to comment on an exchange that I had with the previous permanent secretary at the Department for Education and Skills in the Select Committee when the splitting of the Department was announced? When he said...

I entirely agree with the caution expressed by my hon. Friend, but would he care to comment on an exchange that I had with the previous permanent secretary at the Department for Education and Skills in the Select Committee when the splitting of the Department was announced? When he said...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for making that point, with which I have an enormous amount of sympathy. The Skills Commission—of which I am a member, as is my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman)—is conducting an inquiry into that matter and considering precisely that point. It would...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for making that point, with which I have an enormous amount of sympathy. The Skills Commission—of which I am a member, as is my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman)—is conducting an inquiry into that matter and considering precisely that point. It would...

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for confirming that the schools commissioner will have a role in reporting regularly both to Parliament and to the Select Committee, but there is an important omission in his predecessor’s letter to the Standing Committee, which defined the role. It did not...

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for confirming that the schools commissioner will have a role in reporting regularly both to Parliament and to the Select Committee, but there is an important omission in his predecessor’s letter to the Standing Committee, which defined the role. It did not...

I am pleased to speak to new clause 35, tabled by myself and my hon. Friends, and to comment on some other amendments dealing with federations. I shall explain from the outset the genesis of our concern about putting some clear definition of the schools commissioner’s role directly in the...

I am pleased to speak to new clause 35, tabled by myself and my hon. Friends, and to comment on some other amendments dealing with federations. I shall explain from the outset the genesis of our concern about putting some clear definition of the schools commissioner’s role directly in the...

I know that it suits the hon. Gentleman’s perspective to present what happened as an enormous concession to a particular group of Labour Members. However, will he reflect on the fact that the letter was sent to the Chairman of the Education and Skills Committee on the basis of the...

I know that it suits the hon. Gentleman’s perspective to present what happened as an enormous concession to a particular group of Labour Members. However, will he reflect on the fact that the letter was sent to the Chairman of the Education and Skills Committee on the basis of the...

Does the hon. Gentleman’s reluctance to accept the principle of the ballot have anything to do with the fact that, outside London and the south-east, few ballots for grant-maintained schools were won?

Does the hon. Gentleman’s reluctance to accept the principle of the ballot have anything to do with the fact that, outside London and the south-east, few ballots for grant-maintained schools were won?

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. The letter that was issued on 2 May to members of the Select Committee on Education and Skills did indeed give some clarification about the schools commissioner’s role. Indeed, the Secretary of State has said further helpful things in connection with the...

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. The letter that was issued on 2 May to members of the Select Committee on Education and Skills did indeed give some clarification about the schools commissioner’s role. Indeed, the Secretary of State has said further helpful things in connection with the...

My right hon. Friend mentioned the schools commissioner. Does he envisage the schools commissioner playing a key role in brokering collaboration between trust schools and others in a local authority area?

My right hon. Friend mentioned the schools commissioner. Does he envisage the schools commissioner playing a key role in brokering collaboration between trust schools and others in a local authority area?

My right hon. Friend has expressed reservations about including a requirement for federation in the Bill. It is therefore incumbent on him to spell out a little more precisely how he envisages collaboration, which, he says, is already inherent in the process, working between trust schools and other schools in...

My right hon. Friend has expressed reservations about including a requirement for federation in the Bill. It is therefore incumbent on him to spell out a little more precisely how he envisages collaboration, which, he says, is already inherent in the process, working between trust schools and other schools in...

Labour Members have argued long and passionately over the past few weeks about how to transform the White Paper into this Bill, and those who belong to the Select Committee have done so in a way that I consider to be both constructive and positive. Our passion stems from something...

Labour Members have argued long and passionately over the past few weeks about how to transform the White Paper into this Bill, and those who belong to the Select Committee have done so in a way that I consider to be both constructive and positive. Our passion stems from something...