Education Bill — Remove regulations concerning Annual Parents' Meetings — 14 May 2002 at 15:38

The majority Content voters passed an amendment^[1] to the Education Bill. The vote removed subsection (2) of a clause entitled 'Annual Parents' Meetings'^[2]. This subsection described how schools should conduct these types of meetings.

However, even though this subsection was removed in this vote a modified version of the subsection ended up becoming law when the Education Bill 2002 received Royal Assent on 24th July 2002. As you will see from this debate the Commons disagreed with the amendment that was passed in this particular division. The Commons then proposed an alternative amendment which the Lords agreed to.

The main aims of the Education Bill were to^[3]:

• Allow schools to exempt themselves from laws which prevented them from innovating. However, this is dependent on the Secretary of State's approval.
• Give good schools the option of qualifying for greater flexibility in the National Curriculum and teachers' pay.
• Allow schools to join together in a federation under a single governing body.
• Further regulate school admissions, exclusions and attendance policies.
• Give the Secretary of State further powers to intervene in failing schools.
• Introduce a new regulatory regime for independent schools.

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• [1] Baroness Blatch, House of Lords, 14 May 2002
• [2] Education Bill as brought from the Commons on 7 February 2002, (pdf document - scroll down to page 19 to see the relevant clause)
• [3] TeacherNet Summary, 17 September 2002

Debate in Parliament | Historical Hansard | Source |