Long-promised plans for a register of children not in school were submitted for inclusion in the King’s Speech but blocked by Downing Street, a senior Department for Education official has suggested.
The policy was supposed to be enacted by the schools bill brought forward last year by Boris Johnson’s government. The bill itself was scrapped last autumn, but ministers insisted they remained committed to introducing a register when Parliamentary time allowed.
Education secretary Gillian Keegan and DfE permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood were quizzed today on why they did not submit the bill for consideration in the speech delivered at the state opening of Parliament, which sets out the government’s priority for the forthcoming year.
But in response, Acland-Hood told the education committee that “what’s in the King’s Speech is not the same as what we tried to get into the King’s Speech”.
