Legislative Scrutiny: Children, Schools and Families Bill; Other Bills
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House of Lords House of Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights Legislative Scrutiny: Children, Schools and Families Bill; other Bills Eighth Report of Session 2009-10 Report, together with formal minutes and written evidence Ordered by The House of Lords to be printed 9 February 2010 Ordered by The House of Commons to be printed 9 February 2010 HL Paper 57 HC 369 Published on 19 February 2010 by authority of the House of Lords and the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 Joint Committee on Human Rights The Joint Committee on Human Rights is appointed by the House of Lords and the House of Commons to consider matters relating to human rights in the United Kingdom (but excluding consideration of individual cases); proposals for remedial orders made under Section 10 of and laid under Schedule 2 to the Human Rights Act 1998; and in respect of draft remedial orders and remedial orders, whether the special attention of the House should be drawn to them on any of the grounds specified in Standing Order No. 73 (Lords)/151 (Commons) (Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee)). The Joint Committee has a maximum of six Members appointed by each House, of whom the quorum for any formal proceedings is three from each House. Current membership HOUSE OF LORDS HOUSE OF COMMONS Lord Bowness Mr Andrew Dismore MP (Labour, Hendon) (Chairman) Lord Dubs Dr Evan Harris MP (Liberal Democrat, Oxford West & Baroness Falkner of Margravine Abingdon) Lord Morris of Handsworth OJ Ms Fiona MacTaggart (Labour, Slough) The Earl of Onslow Mr Virendra Sharma MP (Labour, Ealing, Southall) Baroness Prashar Mr Richard Shepherd MP (Conservative, Aldridge-Brownhills) Mr Edward Timpson MP (Conservative, Crewe & Nantwich) Powers The Committee has the power to require the submission of written evidence and documents, to examine witnesses, to meet at any time (except when Parliament is prorogued or dissolved), to adjourn from place to place within the United Kingdom, to adjourn to institutions of the Council of Europe outside the United Kingdom no more than four times in any calendar year, to appoint specialist advisers, and to make Reports to both Houses. The Lords Committee has power to agree with the Commons in the appointment of a Chairman. The procedures of the Joint Committee follow those of House of Lords Select Committees where they differ from House of Commons Committees. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Joint Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the two Houses. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the internet at www.parliament.uk/commons/selcom/hrhome.htm. A list of Reports of the Committee in the present Parliament is at the back of this volume. Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to The Clerk of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Committee Office House of Commons London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general inquiries is: 020 7219 2797; the Committee's e– mail address is [email protected]. Footnotes In the footnotes of this Report, references to oral evidence are indicated by ‘Q' followed by the question number. References to written evidence are indicated by the page number as in ‘Ev 12'. Legislative Scrutiny: Children, Schools and Families Bill; Other Bills 1 Contents Report Page Summary 3 Children, Schools and Families Bill 3 Parent and pupil guarantees 3 Mandatory sex and relationships education 3 Teaching licenses 3 Reporting of family court proceedings 4 Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill 4 Bills drawn to the special attention of both Houses 5 1 Children, Schools and Families Bill 5 Background 5 Purposes of the Bill 5 Explanatory Notes 5 Significant human rights issues 6 (1) Enforceable entitlements for parents and pupils 6 (2) Mandatory sex and relationships education 11 (3) Licensing teachers 19 (4) Reporting of Family Court proceedings 22 (5) Home education 23 2 Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill 25 Conclusions and recommendations 26 Formal Minutes 31 List of written evidence 32 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 33 Legislative Scrutiny: Children, Schools and Families Bill; Other Bills 3 Summary Children, Schools and Families Bill Parent and pupil guarantees We welcome the requirement that the Secretary of State set out specific entitlements which pupils and parents are entitled to expect from their school. However, we have some concerns about the details of the plans. We recommend that the Secretary of State ensures that the entitlements fully reflect the relevant international human rights standards concerning the child’s right to education and the rights of parents in relation to their children’s education. We also suggest an expanded list of people to consult when drawing up the entitlements. In our view Article 6 of the ECHR may well apply to certain types of entitlement. We therefore have concerns that there will not be access to an independent and impartial court or tribunal of full jurisdiction. Mandatory sex and relationships education We welcome the proposal for mandatory sex and relationships education, with a parental right to opt out the child if the child is under the age of 15. However, we recommend the parental right of withdrawal should be limited by reference not to a child’s age, but to the concept of “Gillick competence”. We call for more research on the respective proportion of boys and girls who are withdrawn from sex and relationships education in order that a proper equality impact assessment can be carried out. We are pleased that the Government has accepted that the teaching of sex and relationships in faith schools must present material that is accurate and balanced, must reflect a variety of views, must not present that faith’s views as the only valid views, and must promote equality and diversity. However, we are concerned about the principle that PSHE be taught in a way that is appropriate to the religious and cultural backgrounds of the pupils. This may lead to teaching which is incompatible with the rights of certain children to respect for their private and family life and not to be discriminated against in their enjoyment of that right and their right to education on grounds of sexual orientation, birth or other status. Teaching licenses The Bill makes provision for the Secretary of State to introduce a licensing scheme for teachers. The Government does not consider that the right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions is engaged because it does not consider that a licence, or the right to practise as a teacher, will be a “possession”. We do not agree with this view. The Government argues that, even if teachers’ right to practise their profession does amount to a “possession”, the interference would be justifiable as a proportionate measure with the legitimate aim of improving the quality of teaching. In principle this may be true. However, there is too little detail on the face of the Bill for us to be able to assess the merits of this argument. We recommend that more detail of the proposed licensing scheme be put on the face of the Bill. We also recommend that the Bill be amended to provide a right of appeal to a genuinely independent appellate body. 4 Legislative Scrutiny: Children, Schools and Families Bill; Other Bills Reporting of family court proceedings We are concerned about the proposals to enable wider reporting of family court proceedings. We recommend that the Bill be amended to include an express restriction on the publication of information where such publication would not be in the best interests of the child. Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill We publish without comment two human rights memoranda that we have received from the Government concerning its amendments to the Bill relating to MPs’ expenses and reform of the voting system. Legislative Scrutiny: Children, Schools and Families Bill; Other Bills 5 Bills drawn to the special attention of both Houses 1 Children, Schools and Families Bill Date introduced to first House 19 November 2009 Date introduced to second House Current Bill Number HC Bill 61 Previous Reports None Background 1.1 This is a Government Bill introduced in the House of Commons on 19 November 2009. The Bill received its Second Reading on 11 January 2010 and completed its Committee stage on 4 February 2010. Report stage is scheduled for 23 February 2010. The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, the Rt Hon Ed Balls MP, has made a statement of compatibility under s. 19(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act 1998. 1.2 We wrote to the Secretary of State on 14 January 2010 asking a number of questions about certain aspects of the Bill with human rights implications. We received a full response, for which we are grateful, from Vernon Coaker MP, Minister of State, dated 2 February 2010. That correspondence is published with this Report. 1.3 We have also been assisted by a number of representations1 about this Bill which we received in response to our call for evidence in January, in which we identified the human rights issues that we were likely to be prioritising in our legislative scrutiny work in what will be a shorter than usual parliamentary session. We have considered these carefully and are grateful to all those who took the trouble to submit evidence to us. Purposes of the Bill 1.4 The Bill contains a wide range of measures, the most relevant of which for our purposes are the introduction of a system of “guarantees” for parents and pupils; the introduction of mandatory sex and relationships education in schools; provision about publication of information relating to family proceedings; and the introduction of a licensing scheme for teachers.