Disabled Students’ Allowance
Debate between Viscount Younger of Leckie and Lord Lucas
Viscount Younger of Leckie
The noble Earl makes a very good point. Schools are obliged to look at each pupil to see whether there is a need to assess them, and indeed, some money is set aside for each school for this very purpose. Some schools might need to do better and, if that is the case, Ofsted and the school inspection system need to come down hard on those that do not do enough in that respect.
Lord Lucas (Con)
My Lords, I am very grateful to the Government for saying that they will look again at the impact on performance tables of excluding children, and take action to keep the responsibility for those children with the school that is excluding them. Will the Minister encourage the Government to look at the effect that Progress 8, in particular, is having on the provision of courses suitable for children, often with education, health and care plans, for whom the examinations within Progress 8 are too high a hurdle? It seems that schools are being penalised for providing for these children and that provision for them is therefore becoming less common.
Viscount Younger of Leckie
I will certainly take the points made by my noble friend back to the department. I hope there was general acceptance and approval of the announcement yesterday about the exclusion decisions and recommendations made by the Timpson review. As the House will know, we are looking to take those forward.
Higher Education and Research Act 2017 (Cooperation and Information Sharing) Regulations 2018
Debate between Viscount Younger of Leckie and Lord Lucas
Lord Lucas
My Lords, I do not believe my noble friend has answered either of the questions I posed. If the Government are content with drawing a wide power in regulations for a narrow use of personal data, we as a House should react to that by greatly strengthening our scrutiny of such secondary legislation. This got through our scrutiny without being picked up. If this is to be regular practice—if the Government do not say, “Sorry, we will not do it again”—then we must take it seriously. It is entirely inappropriate that we should draw such wide powers for such a narrow purpose when it concerns a sensitive matter.
Secondly, I heard my noble friend say that data-sharing agreements would not be published. I would be grateful if he could write to me to say how in that case we, as Parliament, can exercise proper scrutiny of the way in which data sharing is being carried out; and, secondly, how that attitude fits with the Freedom of Information Act, which I understand requires the reduction of the commercially sensitive elements of a data-sharing agreement. Surely a great deal of what is in there—particularly the detail of what kind of information is being shared and what sort of terms and conditions have been placed on it—cannot be commercially confidential in any real sense.
Viscount Younger of Leckie
I take note of my noble friend’s broader points about the scrutiny of secondary legislation—I am simply taking note of that—and I will write to him on his points about data-sharing agreements and their publication. I hope that that will satisfy him.