Fifth Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation
Tuesday 17 November 1998
[Mr. Roger Gale in the Chair]
Draft Education (Grammar School Ballots) Regulations 1998
4.30 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Ms Estelle Morris): I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Education (Grammar School Ballots) Regulations 1998.
How nice to see you again, Mr. Gale--it does not seem long since we spent many long weeks together in this Committee Room, along with several other familiar faces here today.
The regulations were laid before the House on 21 October and have been considered by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments. As Committee members will know, they were also debated in another place last Friday.
The Committee will be aware that the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 implements our manifesto commitment that any changes in the admissions policies of grammar schools will be decided by local parents. Despite press coverage--and there has been much relating to grammar schools in the past few days--I do not intend to go over the, by now, old ground between us about the principles of selection and giving parents an opportunity to decide on the future of selective admissions to grammar schools. Not only was the matter well and truly debated during the passage of the 1998 Act, it has been a commitment in our manifesto and in documents prior to that as far back as 1995.
The regulations arise from sections 104 to 108 of the 1998 Act. As a result of the recommendations of the Delegated Powers Scrutiny Committee in another place, the Act prescribes what the regulations should contain in considerable detail. Thus, the key points of the regulations are already fixed by the Act. Most of the additions that we are debating today are mere details concerning how to administer the processes.
The principle underlying the regulations is that ballots must be fair and workable. We want parents to be able to decide, as we promised that they should. The Government sent a note to the Standing Committee that examined the Bill in February, before it was enacted, indicating what we intended the regulations to cover. The arrangements in the note were reflected in the draft regulations, which were issued for consultation on 3 June and sent to all grammar schools, local education authorities and a range of national organisations. The revised regulations that we put to the Committee today take account of the comments that we received. They are detailed and somewhat long, so it might be helpful if I say a few words about their contents.
The regulations fill in the detail on how petitions and ballots will be organised. The 1998 Act makes a distinction between the electorates for two sorts of ballot. In an area ballot, all the parents resident in the area, whether their children are at any type of school or not, together with parents from outside the area who send their children to maintained schools in the area, will have a vote.
In a feeder school ballot, parents of children at primary schools that have sent a specific number of children to any of the schools in the group over a prescribed period will be able to petition or vote. Section 106 of the 1998 Act largely spelled out which parents are eligible to petition or vote under the different arrangements. The details of the numbers of pupils and the specified period are the same as in the consultation draft of the regulations.
Feeder schools will be those from which a total of five pupils have transferred to the grammar schools concerned in the previous three years. Hon. Members will not be surprised to hear that during the consultation period there were arguments for both a higher and a lower threshold of pupils for feeder schools. We did not alter our specification because five pupils in three years seems a sensible minimum with which to constitute a strong link with a grammar school. There was certainly no agreement on an alternative number.
Mr. Phil Willis (Harrogate and Knaresborough): I am grateful to the Minister for giving way so early in her speech.
First, will she clarify the position of single-sex grammar schools? What would happen if fewer than five children from a feeder school went to one or other of the single-sex grammar schools in, say, Skipton in the three-year period? Would that constitute grounds for a ballot for both schools? Secondly, would a ballot for one of the single-sex schools automatically mean a ballot for both? Clearly, that would create complications elsewhere in the system.
Mr. David Curry (Skipton and Ripon): The first answer is no and the second is yes.
Ms Morris: If the right hon. Gentleman wishes to answer my questions, I shall sit down.
Mr. Willis: I thought that the Liberal Democrats were a part of the Government now.
Ms Morris: I am pleased to hear the enthusiasm with which the hon. Gentleman says that. We are a broad church and all comers will be accepted.
The key matter is the groupings, as defined in the regulations. A petition will apply to a group of schools that is laid down in the regulations. If a free-standing grammar school is specified, parents will petition for that. When grammar schools are grouped together, the petition will affect each school.
Mr. Curry: Skipton happens to be in my constituency and not in that of the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Mr. Willis). As the hon. Gentleman said, the area has twin schools; a boys' and a girls' grammar school. Primary schools and mixed schools are also situated there. The hon. Gentleman asked whether the threshold of eligibility specifies five pupils going to Ermysted's grammar school, the boys' school, over three years and five pupils during three years going to the high school, or whether five pupils will go to both schools and be shared between them.
Ms Morris: They will be shared between them. To make that clear--they will go to grammar schools defined as a group in the ballot.
Parents whose youngest children are in the sixth form will not be eligible to petition or to vote, because the arrangements do not apply to selective admissions at sixth-form level. That approach is in line with the consultation draft of the provisions, which is different from the note prepared by the Government for both Houses during consideration in Committee of the Bill that was to become the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.
Schedules 1, 2 and 3 specify the areas that will be treated as whole areas for petitions and ballots. They also specify the schools that will stand together and those that will stand alone. They spell out which ballot arrangements laid out in the Act should apply to each of the 166 grammar schools that have been designated as such by order. The only exception is the group containing schools in Sutton and Nonsuch high school for girls. The regulations refer to those schools as being covered by a ballot for a prescribed area containing the Sutton authority area and the ward of Nonsuch. As hon. Members who have taken an interest in the matter will know, that is because the high school is situated in the electoral ward of Nonsuch, and is just outside the boarder of Sutton.
Petition thresholds will be set at 20 per cent. of eligible parents on relevant school lists laid down in the Act. The regulations explain how the threshold figure for each petition will be established. The ballot administration company will not need to start establishing the threshold until requested to do so by 10 people, a change introduced as a result of the consultation. Our earlier draft of the provision stipulated that only one person need make such a request.
The information to be entered on the petitions is specified, so that the ballot company has adequate information to check that signatures are eligible. The words to appear on the petitions are also specified.
The ballot question is close to everyone's hearts. The Government are planning an explanatory introduction to the question, which will ensure that it is clear that it is about all admissions to the grammar schools. The regulations spell out the question, which was simplified through consultation. Parents will be asked to tick yes or no in response to the following question:
``Are you in favour of all the schools listed introducing admission arrangements which admit children of all abilities?''
In the case of a stand-alone ballot, the grammar school's name will be inserted into the question. Otherwise, the ballot paper will list the schools that are involved.
The regulations designate Electoral Reform (Ballot Services) Ltd. to take on the functions of the ballot administration, which the Act requires to be carried out by a designated body. The regulations explain that the body will notify specific relevant people of when a ballot will occur. It will send out ballot papers for parents to return. A ballot will usually follow directly the declaration that a petition is valid, balloting the same set of eligible parents. The exception to that approach will be the first year. No ballot will be held before September 1999, no matter when the relevant petition was drawn up, so that the new admission consultation arrangements can be in place before any ballot results need to be implemented.
The Act specified that a ballot result would be determined by a simple majority of those voting. If a ballot result goes against change, there will be a five-year moratorium. In that period, no further petitions can be raised or information about parents demanded from schools. In fact, it will be more than five years before another ballot can take place.
The regulations set out the time scale within which new admissions arrangements must be implemented after a ballot result in favour of change. We have changed the time scale as a result of the consultation, so it will be useful if I spell matters out. The time scale will depend on when the result is declared. Where ballot results are declared on or before 31 December, grammar schools will need to consult on revised admissions proposals in time to have them in their prospectuses for the following September for intakes the September after that. For ballot results that are declared between January and the end of the school year--which I suspect is the more likely case--the new arrangements will be required for the second September after the ballot for intakes in the third September after that.
The regulations set out the circumstances in which a ballot result may be declared void. One such circumstance would arise if someone behaved in a manner that was not in accordance with the ballot information code. The code is intended to set a standard for fairness and balance in the presentation of information to parents, whether in writing or at meetings.
Section 107 of the School Standards and Framework Act has a bearing on how maintained school governing bodies and local education authorities behave. They may use public funds to produce fairly presented factual statements and fair and reasonable assessments of what might happen in the event of a ballot for change, and to make statements of their own intentions in the event of such a ballot result.
To conclude, the regulations establish a means to take account of the variety of grammar school situations in local authority areas throughout the country. They will enable us to fulfil our commitment to parents that they will decide future admissions arrangements to grammar schools. I therefore commend the regulations to the Committee.
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