If the election is to be on 6th May then it will be called on March 29th and parliament will go into recess on April 12th according to this article on Politics.co.uk.
But what about the Easter recess; they had 18 days last year and this year Easter Sunday falls on April 4th. Will they break up some time before this or on the Friday just before? At the very least the Easter Break must surely take away another five working days from the time they have left, could it be more?
I have heard that the Lords have no time for a first reading of the bill until 9th March (can’t remember where, one of the lists or another blog) so even if they start on the 10th that gives it just over five weeks to progress though the first two readings followed by the committee stage, the report stage and the third reading. Assuming here that the process is similar to that in the Commons. Then there is consideration of the amendments and hopefully the Lords won’t be as ineffectual and as disabled by party bullying as the Commons has disgracefully been, so there will be some amendments. Then Royal assent, no idea how long that takes.
Five weeks seems far too long to me so I do think we really all do need to write to the Lords, some people are making sterling efforts already and there is a list of Lords with some information about their interests here. This can be amended so please add any information you find.
Then lobbying of MPs is in order, anyone who hasn't sent their MP this document might want to do it now and the AHED submission to the Scrutiny Committee is very clear.
There is talk also of the APPG for Home Education hosting an event for home educators to meet Lords and explain the problems with the bill, some speakers have been mentioned, I remember Imran and Betsy, their marvellous submission to the scrutiny committee is here.
You can read all the submissions here.
Timeline | Children Schools and Families Bill |
Date | Event |
23rd Feb | Third reading: Commons |
10th March | Earliest date for first reading in Lords, second reading, committee stage, report stage and third reading to follow. |
29th March | Election called |
4th April | Easter Sunday: Possible recess |
12th April | Parliament dissolved |
6th May | General and Local Elections |
Update: There are now rumours that the Election may be brought forward to April 15th, which would mean that the time for moving the bill through the Lords would be reduced to less than two weeks with Parliament dissolved round about the 22nd March.





