This briefing provides an overview of a range of key statutory employment rights in Great Britain, including unfair dismissal, deduction from wages and working time.

This briefing provides an overview of a range of key statutory employment rights in Great Britain, including unfair dismissal, deduction from wages and working time.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of student loan interest accrual on (a) disabled graduates and (b) graduates with long-term health conditions during periods of illness and reduced working capacity.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of student loan interest accrual on (a) disabled graduates and (b) graduates with long-term health conditions during periods of illness and reduced working capacity.

Examination of witnesses. Written evidence reported to the House.

Examination of witnesses. Written evidence reported to the House.

Amendment to the schedule debated and withdrawn. Another amendment to the schedule negatived on division (5 votes to 8). Further amendment to the schedule negatived on division (6 votes to 9). Other amendments agreed to. Schedule agreed to as amended. Bill, as amended, to be reported (Bill 164).

Amendment to the schedule debated and withdrawn. Another amendment to the schedule negatived on division (5 votes to 8). Further amendment to the schedule negatived on division (6 votes to 9). Other amendments agreed to. Schedule agreed to as amended. Bill, as amended, to be reported (Bill 164).

Lords second reading. Agreed to on question. Bill committed to a Committee of the Whole House.

Lords second reading. Agreed to on question. Bill committed to a Committee of the Whole House.

My Lords, it is my great privilege to open the Second Reading debate of the Children and Families Bill. When I came into this job, I swore that I would do what I had successfully done over the previous 30 years: keep control of my diary. I gave that idea...

My Lords, it is my great privilege to open the Second Reading debate of the Children and Families Bill. When I came into this job, I swore that I would do what I had successfully done over the previous 30 years: keep control of my diary. I gave that idea...

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his introduction to this important Children and Families Bill and welcome him to the Dispatch Box for his first major task as a Minister—steering the Bill through your Lordships’ House. I look forward to debating with him during our proceedings.

It is good finally...

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his introduction to this important Children and Families Bill and welcome him to the Dispatch Box for his first major task as a Minister—steering the Bill through your Lordships’ House. I look forward to debating with him during our proceedings.

It is good finally...

My Lords, I welcome this much needed Bill. It brings together important proposals, making a big advancement for families and, above all, our children. For the first time in a generation the Government are tackling some of the major barriers that children and families face. We on these Benches are...

My Lords, I welcome this much needed Bill. It brings together important proposals, making a big advancement for families and, above all, our children. For the first time in a generation the Government are tackling some of the major barriers that children and families face. We on these Benches are...

My Lords, I welcome the Children and Families Bill and the potential that it presents to provide a real choice of educational opportunities for disabled children, young people and their parents. The Government stated in their Green Paper, Support and Aspiration: A New Approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability,...

My Lords, I welcome the Children and Families Bill and the potential that it presents to provide a real choice of educational opportunities for disabled children, young people and their parents. The Government stated in their Green Paper, Support and Aspiration: A New Approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability,...

My Lords, as other noble Lords have said, there is much to welcome in this Bill, especially the important changes for looked-after and adopted children. I add the support from this Bench too for the broad ambition of the Bill to extend a greater level of choice, participation and long-term...

My Lords, as other noble Lords have said, there is much to welcome in this Bill, especially the important changes for looked-after and adopted children. I add the support from this Bench too for the broad ambition of the Bill to extend a greater level of choice, participation and long-term...

My Lords, my comments today are concerned only with those aspects of the Bill, mainly in Part 3, that deal with children and young people with special educational needs.

Some 35 years ago the report of the noble Baroness, Lady Warnock, whom I am delighted to see in her seat today,...

My Lords, my comments today are concerned only with those aspects of the Bill, mainly in Part 3, that deal with children and young people with special educational needs.

Some 35 years ago the report of the noble Baroness, Lady Warnock, whom I am delighted to see in her seat today,...

My Lords, the social reformer Gertrude Tuckwell, writing in 1894, said:

“Among the social questions with which the nation has to deal, there is none, it seems to me, so important as … children”.

I agree, and I am pleased to be speaking in this Second Reading of a Bill which seeks...

My Lords, the social reformer Gertrude Tuckwell, writing in 1894, said:

“Among the social questions with which the nation has to deal, there is none, it seems to me, so important as … children”.

I agree, and I am pleased to be speaking in this Second Reading of a Bill which seeks...

My Lords, in what my noble friend Lord Storey called a “progressive and promising Bill”, I will largely confine myself—today, at any rate—to Part 1. I should declare an interest because I was a board member of and legal adviser to Parents for Children, an adoption agency, many years ago...

My Lords, in what my noble friend Lord Storey called a “progressive and promising Bill”, I will largely confine myself—today, at any rate—to Part 1. I should declare an interest because I was a board member of and legal adviser to Parents for Children, an adoption agency, many years ago...

My Lords, last Wednesday the Minister discussed the Children and Families Bill at the weekly meeting of the Cross-Bench Peers. I was particularly interested in Part 3 and the provisions affecting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. I asked how the local authorities who were trialling...

My Lords, last Wednesday the Minister discussed the Children and Families Bill at the weekly meeting of the Cross-Bench Peers. I was particularly interested in Part 3 and the provisions affecting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. I asked how the local authorities who were trialling...

My Lords, this Bill is large and comprehensive and, as such, it is a bit like the curate’s egg. It is good and bad in parts. One very good thing is that it provides us with a chance to debate reforms to current laws and, one hopes, reach cross-party consensus...

My Lords, this Bill is large and comprehensive and, as such, it is a bit like the curate’s egg. It is good and bad in parts. One very good thing is that it provides us with a chance to debate reforms to current laws and, one hopes, reach cross-party consensus...