Education, Children and Young People Committee 19 November 2025
I start by saying that this is the first opportunity that I have had since stage 1 to acknowledge and welcome the extremely constructive approach of the member in charge of the bill in working with me and my officials to identify ways in which we can improve the bill’s provisions. Group 2 provides an important example of the outcome of that work. The two amendments in the group—amendments 13 and 14—seek to strengthen the deliverability of the bill, and I very much welcome Liz Smith’s agreement to lodge them.
The amendments recognise the real-world challenges and circumstances outwith the control of an education authority or grant-aided school that might mean that they are unable to ensure provision of residential outdoor education for some pupils, despite their best efforts. We have heard examples in relation to centres, but some challenges or circumstances might relate to pupils, too. For example, a pupil might move school in year, and their new school might have determined that the most reasonable approach to residential provision was to offer it to their year cohort on an annual basis. In that circumstance, it might not be reasonable for the law to require the school to arrange an additional residential trip solely for the individual pupil if it has already provided the opportunity to its wider class cohort earlier in the term.