Schools bill’s passage through Parliament now seems on verge of farcical –as next Lords stage looms despite mystery over its key provisions

The government seems likely to face yet more controversy over the passage of its schools bill through Parliament, with ministers having rejected cross-party calls by members of the House of Lords to pause the much-amended draft legislation until the autumn.

Yesterday the Department for Education bowed to almost universal criticism within the Lords about how it has proposed to reform the academies system, by withdrawing the first 18 clauses of the bill, all of which relate to the academies system.

The DfE is pledging to “bring forward revised proposals” in relation to these clauses, which sought to standardise and extend the system through which ministers can intervene in academy trusts, when the bill reaches the House of Commons.

But with that not scheduled to happen until the autumn, the bill now appears to face the perhaps farcical situation of completing its passage through the Lords this month with many of its central provisions now unknown.

Last month, the bill had gone through the third, and most detailed, phase of five stages of its passage through the Lords, before heading to the Commons in the autumn.