Debate contribution: Education Inspections Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Jon Burrows on 1 June 2026.

MLA

Mr Jon Burrows

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

1 June 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Education Inspections Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5581619

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Striking a balance on legitimate and fundamentally important public interest issues is a solemn duty of the people in this place. There is no public interest duty more profound than that of balancing the rights of our teachers, who educate our young people, who are overworked, who are underpaid and who are struggling at times with being abused in our schools by a minority of pupils, which I have talked about recently, with the needs of our children to get the best possible education, to make sure that safeguarding is always paramount and to make sure that, if there is good practice, it is shared and that, if there is bad or dangerous practice, it is identified and dealt with. That is why I take a broadly similar position to that of the Chair of the Education Committee in saying that the Bill deserves to go through for further scrutiny at Committee Stage. I say at the outset that it is fundamentally right that RE be included in inspections, because it is like any other subject, and we need to make sure that there is quality provision of education. The Supreme Court — as some people in the Chamber struggle to accept, unless it suits them — is the supreme court. It made a decision, and I respect that. I will give you a personal experience to show why I think that not only inspections but RE inspections are so important. I went to a school where one of the RE teachers was a paedophile. He abused my friends. I saw a lot of things that I should not have seen. For many years — probably about 20 years — he abused children in the school that I went to. If an inspection had looked at some of the really disturbing things that he was doing and had had an opportunity to speak to pupils, that abuse perhaps might not have taken place, but Dr Brown got away with it. Our RE classes were never inspected. That was the subject that he taught for years, and he abused a lot of people at Bangor Grammar School. I therefore have a passionate interest in getting this right. However, we need to make sure that the protection of inspection is proportionate and fair and that the possible outcomes and consequences are properly defined. That is where we should focus our attention at the Committee Stage. Before we consider passing the Bill, it is right that we know what sort of sanction a teacher could get, because, as is clearly stated in case law, we should have clarity and certainty on the law. We need to know what the sanctions might be. There are options to put in amendments to make sure that the potential sanctions —.

That is a very good point. It is relevant that the criminal sanctions have deterred anybody from engaging in action short of strike and disrupting inspections. I note — I am happy to be corrected if I am wrong — that it is a criminal offence to obstruct inspection in the rest of the United Kingdom and, of course, in our good neighbour, the Irish Republic. Of course, Sinn Féin, as I pointed out last week, has become the party of the hard border on the island of Ireland when it comes to many things, one of which is the issue of inspection in our schools. It is an offence in the Irish Republic, and I presume that its southern colleagues are not lobbying for a change to that law. However, it does not support inspection being protected here even by a disciplinary code.

Whatever the merits of the argument, there is a divergence in its policy. It is now, in many ways, the party of partition. I will get back to the core of the debate. There are amendments that we could look at to make sure that the sanction is proportionate, that it is not punitive and that it is sufficiently clear. There could be a warning, in the first instance. We need to see this —. I will give way to Mr Sheehan. Are you looking for me to give way?

Yes. Stand up, please.

That is why the Bill deserves to progress to Committee Stage, where we can look at that specific issue, but, if we —.

To Mr Buckley, yes.

I have never really been one to admire the competence of Sinn Féin. Its Members need to be honest on this point: there is a partitionist approach. Perhaps they do not trust teachers in the Republic of Ireland, and they trust them more in Northern Ireland. I will get back to the nub of the issue. The reality is that we will have the opportunity to look at the Bill at its next stage, to probe it and look at amendments to make sure that we strike the right balance. However, to throw the Bill in its entirety out at this stage —.

I will always give way to Mr Baker.

On the face of it, it was unnecessary, OK? I also supported putting the holiday hunger Bill through to the next stage, even though I think that there are significant issues —.

I will, with absolute pleasure, Mr Deputy Speaker. Here is the essence of our position. This is too important to throw out in order to score some points on TikTok. There are two competing interests: the interests of our teachers to be treated fairly and the interests of our pupils to get a quality education and to be protected and safeguarded. We can find the right balance. We should look at the Bill and afford ourselves every opportunity to get that balance right, because nothing is more important than safeguarding our young people. Every other profession has inspections, which is right and proper. We need to make sure that the inspection is fair. I understand teachers' concerns about workload and whether there is a chilling effect on wider industrial rights. It would be easy for me to appeal to populism to try to score some quick points, but the Bill is too important for that. For that reason, I will support its going through —.

1,037 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Uncertain: close call Education structures, integration and community division

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:46 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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