Part 3 Schools Bill – Compulsory Registration – Getting Amended House of Lords Today

DECEMBER 2022: THE SCHOOLS BILL HAS BEEN DROPPED. THERE IS CURRENTLY NO MECHANISM IN LAW TO INTRODUCE ANY OF THE PROPOSALS OUTLINED BELOW. READ MORE HERE

Today – July 18th – is the 2nd (and currently final) day of Report for the Schools Bill in the House of Lords.

I have already written in some detail here about the amendments to the compulsory registration clauses being put forward by the government https://edyourself.wordpress.com/2022/07/11/government-amendments-to-cnis-register-make-it-less-bad/ plus explaining it is only government amendments that go through.

The House of Lords starts sitting at 2.30 pm. Report stage takes place in the main chamber and there is some other business to be despatched first as can be seen here

Amendments are grouped into what is called a marshalled list with certain types of amendment being listed before others. The best place to see the latest iteration is on the Parallel Parliament site. More information about amendments can be found via my #amendments tag https://edyourself.wordpress.com/tag/amendments/ below.

In principle the amendments are discussed in the order in which they appear on the marshalled list but in practice the debate seems to hop around all over the place depending eg on who is available to speak to their amendment and on how much time is left on the day (given the convention that peers can ostensibly talk for as long as they like once they begin).

Having said all that though, I would expect the government amendments re compulsory registration to be one of the first things discussed once the Schools Bill session starts this afternoon although we will not see formal confirmation that the government amendments have been adopted until the clutch of amendments related to each clause is done, where you also suddenly see all non-government amendments “not moved” ie withdrawn/not put to a vote (division/testing the will of the house) which would lose. (Reminder here of what is in each clause currently)

Meanwhile, assuming that today represents the final day of Report, we will know by the end of today (if watching parliament TV or by the time the Hansard rolling feed has been updated for those who prefer reading to watching) whether peers have agreed to commit the Bill to a Third Reading and we may also have some indication of the DATE of Third Reading.

The parliamentary process for a Bill becoming an Act of Parliament is explained here. Third Reading has become somewhat contentious, since peers are not happy about what is happening with clauses 1 – 18. Originally there were rumours that Third Reading would be delayed, then it appeared in the parliamentary calendar (though NOT on the Schools Bill page) as July 20th, and the latest information now suggests it will be September, although at the time of writing I still can’t see a date on the Schools Bill page.

The Bill will be reprinted soon after Report to incorporate amendments made at Report, just as it was reprinted after Committee. This is where we will see how the clause numbering has been affected by 1- 18 being temporarily removed, and also we will have definitive sight of the latest version of the registration proposals.

MY WEBSITE LINK https://edyourself.org/articles/registration.php

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