Speeches by Simmonds.

“As always, it has been a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dame Siobhain. In that Christmas spirit, I thank the Minister for his constructive engagement. It is characteristic of several of the Ministers in the Department, and it has been enormously helpful. I put on record my thanks to the Whips; I appreciate th…”

“I know that the Minister is a localist at heart and will generally support measures that increase autonomy and decision making at local level. I recognise that the Government have the numbers to reject the measure. I think the point that it is hard to model the outcome was addressed in previous amendments that the Gove…”

“I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time. You will be relieved, Dame Siobhain, to hear that these are the last of the amendments and new clauses that I will move for debate. The purpose of the new clause is to bring in a measure to support the local retention of additional receipts that come from the measur…”

“I am sure that most mums and dads will be glad that excellent education is already available in England’s schools, given the transformation that has taken place in standards. However, we are here to concentrate on finances. For that reason, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. C…”

“I will be brief, because we touched on this matter in the evidence sessions yesterday. The amendment and new clause both seek to ensure that the measures contained in the Bill have a review mechanism and impact assessments. The Minister said earlier that he was minded to proceed, regardless of the outcome, but there wi…”

“I beg to move amendment 11, in clause 6, page 6, line 20, at end insert “, provided that the condition in section [Requirement for the Government to commission an independent review on the impact of the 2026 revaluation of hereditaments on provisions of this Act] is met.” This amendment provides that the provisions of …”

“Clearly, the Government have set out their direction of travel and they are determined to proceed. It is important to acknowledge, given the rationale around diverting funds to the state sector, that our state schools, by all significant measures, are now the highest performing that they have ever been. Although I woul…”

“Once again, I recognise that the Government have the numbers to do as they wish, but I am concerned by what the Minister has outlined. This is not simply an amendment about nursery schools, which are a specific thing. It is about nurseries, which provide childcare. For younger children we have the early years foundatio…”

“I beg to move amendment 9, in clause 5, page 5, line 38, at end insert— “(5A) Where a private school offers nursery provision, that school must be considered to be comprised of two separate hereditaments, one of which would be a nursery school.” The question of hereditaments is certainly not one that I remember from En…”

“I need to be clear that I am not here to act as an advocate for faith education; I am not personally a fan of it. I recognise the Minister’s point, but we need to acknowledge that many Members on both sides of the House, and many of our constituents, believe very strongly that they should be able to access a school of …”

“I beg to move amendment 8, in clause 5, page 5, line 38, at end insert “, or (b) has a religious character or other special character and there is no maintained school or academy of the same character within the specified distance from that school. (5A) In sub-paragraph (5)(b)— (a) ‘religious character’ has the meaning…”

“I beg to move amendment 7, in clause 5, page 5, line 38, at end insert “, or (b) a local authority makes a determination that they wish to apply discretion to the application of rate relief for the institution within the meaning of section 47 (Discretionary relief) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988.” This amendm…”

“I am grateful to the Minister for acknowledging that the vast majority of the children that we are talking about will have their needs provided for in the state sector. I think we are all very much aware of that, and generally consider it something of which we can be proud. However, a significant number of children fin…”

“I beg to move amendment 26, in clause 5, page 5, line 37, leave out from “persons” to the end of line 38 and insert “who have special educational needs. (5A) In subsection (5) ‘special educational needs’ has the same meaning as in section 20 (when a child or young person has special educational needs) of the Children a…”

“Further to that point of order, Dame Siobhan. I will not press the amendments to a vote.”

“I have no objection to these measures. Could the Minister confirm, in writing if that is more convenient, that there has been a degree of consultation with the corporation to establish what, if any, impact it would expect on its budget?”

“Q Could you share with us an assessment—your view—of the impact that measures in the Bill will have on the affected sectors? Stuart Adam: There are two sections in the Bill, obviously: one about multipliers and one about private schools. We should probably separate those as they are very different issues. In terms of t…”

“Q To pursue that technical point, under the SEND system in the state sector, as well as the statement—now, the educational, health and care plan—you traditionally had structures such as school action and school action plus. A child whose identified needs were not sufficient to trigger the issuing of an EHCP, but did re…”

“Q Could one of the panel return to the point about the hereditaments, as in the sites and the impact where you have multiple different types of service on a given site, and where, if those were separated out, they would not be subject to and come within the business rate changes? With nursery care in particular, where …”

“Q I declare for the record that I have a significant number of independent schools, nurseries and other institutions in my constituency, two of which my family are customers of. We need to stick very much within the scope of the legislation, but the feedback I have had from the sector is that it has felt like a very di…”