Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Not Addressed
Require Government to follow legislative guidelines and engage meaningfully with select committees
Recommendation
We recommend that the Government undertakes to follow the Cabinet Office Guide to Making Legislation and engage meaningfully, and in a timely way, with select committees as a way of improving policy making and building consensus on important legislation. We further recommend that the Government provide a memorandum to the Liaison Committee demonstrating how it plans to engage with select committees on legislation over the Parliament. (Recommendation, Paragraph 12) 26
Government Response Summary
The government's response defends its past engagement process for the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill but does not address the recommendation to commit to following engagement guidelines with select committees more meaningfully in the future or to provide a memorandum to the Liaison Committee.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
Government response to Conclusions one, two, three and four and Recommendation one: We are grateful for the Committee’s recognition of the wide-reaching ambition that this Bill seeks to deliver across the Children’s Social Care and schools sectors. The Government gives consideration to which bills will be published in draft, taking into account the overall requirements of the legislative programme and how to ensure that time is used as efficiently as possible. The Government did not consider the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill necessary for pre-legislative scrutiny and therefore did not publish it in draft. Instead, we wrote to the Committee upon introduction of the Bill in the House of Commons and provided the Committee with a briefing opportunity with officials before Second Reading. Many of the landmark reforms in the Bill are manifesto commitments - for example, the commitment to introduce free breakfast clubs in every primary school and ensuring any new teacher entering the classroom has, or is working towards, Qualified Teacher Status. The introduction of the Bill early in the session is reflective of the government’s ambition to progress these landmark reforms quickly. The Bill’s passage and timing between intervals is in line with the government’s guidance on making legislation. We have published detailed Impact Assessments on the Bill’s provisions, both regulatory and non-regulatory and welcome that, following its scrutiny, the independent Regulatory Policy Committee has given the Bill’s Impact Assessments a ‘green’ rating. The Impact Assessments can be viewed, alongside a Child Right’s Impact Assessment and an equalities impact assessment here: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: impact assessments - GOV.UK.