Debate contribution: Education Inspections Bill: Extension of Committee Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Nick Mathison on 23 June 2026.

MLA: Mr Nick Mathison
Party at the time: Alliance Party
Date: 23 June 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Committee Business
Heading: Education Inspections Bill: Extension of Committee Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5637318

Text

The Committee for Education decided its timeline for the Committee Stage of the Education Inspections Bill by attempting to strike a balance between the competing priorities of delivering legislation in a timely fashion and the crucial components of good scrutiny. Having considered all the relevant factors in the mix, the Committee agreed a motion to extend the Committee Stage until 9 December 2026. The Committee took a pre-legislative briefing some time ago on the proposed legislation. The Bill has subsequently been to the Executive for consideration, and departmental officials have advised that certain aspects of the Bill have been changed since the original briefing and draft. That is particularly in relation to the inclusion of the inspection of RE, which was not previously going to be in scope, and some changes to the proposals around the sanctioning of teachers since the criminal offence has been removed. We will come to that, I am sure. Clause 3 has raised significant commentary and concern and is likely to be a feature of the Committee's deliberations. We are mindful of the concerns that were raised at Second Stage about clause 3, which was linking the inspection process to teacher conduct and introducing a definition of "unacceptable professional conduct" when a teacher does not cooperate with an inspection. That could lead to disciplinary action, although the detail of that is not clear. That is something that the Committee will need to explore in more detail. It will engage with the Department and stakeholders to examine exactly what the impact of that clause as drafted will be. So far, the Committee has launched a Citizen Space survey on the provisions of the Bill and invited all education stakeholders to submit written submissions on the proposal. Following the conclusion of that Citizen Space survey, the further stages anticipated in our Committee deliberations are the holding of oral evidence sessions on the substance of the Bill; Committee deliberation on any evidence received; engagement as required with departmental officials to answer any queries arising from those evidence sessions and members' considerations of the Bill; the development and consideration of potential Committee amendments; informal and formal clause-by-clause scrutiny and approval of the Bill; and consideration and approval of the final Committee report to the Assembly. The Committee has set out a timeline, including all those steps, with a view to permitting adequate time to complete each of those by the 9 December deadline, if not before. The Committee is mindful, with all the legislation that it is dealing with at the moment, of the flow of legislation through the Assembly. It takes its scrutiny role seriously as well as its responsibility to optimise the opportunity to deliver legislation in the mandate, and we hope that the timeline established will allow the passage of the Bill before the Assembly dissolves. I anticipate a lot of interest and debate at Committee Stage, particularly on clause 3, as has been referenced. On balance, however, I believe that the Committee Stage extension to 9 December is reasonable and constitutes adequate time for consideration of all relevant factors in the Bill's new legislative proposals. I will now make a brief comment as a Member. As I said, the Bill attracted significant debate at Second Stage due to concerns about clause 3. It is important to note again at this stage, however, that it is a three-clause Bill, with each clause doing very different and separate things. I put on record that I am particularly interested in clause 2, which proposes to deliver the long overdue reform to ensure that RE is inspected by the Education and Training Inspectorate in our schools. It is important that we have the appropriate time at Committee Stage to scrutinise that proposal. I have concerns that it does not go far enough, in that, as far as I can tell, it leaves on the statute book provisions allowing the Churches to retain rights of inspection, which I can see no good reason to continue at this point. The more controversial clause 3 proposes to sanction teachers who do not comply with inspections. We are aware of the concern that that has caused among the teaching profession, and it is important to scrutinise the clause properly to establish exactly what its effect would be, whether it could be amended and improved to the satisfaction of the teaching profession, or whether, if necessary, on the basis of its deliberations, the Committee might decide to table an amendment to remove it in its entirety. The proposed Committee Stage deadline gives us the time to do that work and do it thoroughly. Undoubtedly, this is important legislation, and I hope that the proposed stage extension receives support so that the concerns that we have identified with the Bill can be given the attention required.

801 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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