COMMUNITY USE OF SCHOOL PREMISES BILL
Explanatory and financial memorandum
INTRODUCTION
1. This Explanatory and Financial Memorandum has been prepared for Mr David McNarry MLA. It needs to be read in conjunction with the bill and it is not, nor is it meant to be, a comprehensive description of the Bill.
BACKGROUND AND POLICY OBJECTIVES
2. There is inadequate use put to the massive potential resources of the schools estate in Northern Ireland and the Department has to date failed to take forward fully and creatively the powers it has to make better use of this public resource
3. The Bill is intended to achieve greater community use of the school premises outside the school day
CONSULTATION
4. The proposals in the Bill are essentially consultation-based and no separate consultation exercise outside this is thought to be necessary.
OVERVIEW
5. The Bill is a short three clause piece of draft legislation that will meet the policy objective above
COMMENTARY ON CLAUSES
The Bill inserts a new Article 140A in the 1989 Order. The Bill assumes that the power to make school premises available to the community and incur expenditure in doing so already exists: it is concerned solely with the obligation to make and implement schemes.
Paragraph (1) would require school guardians to prepare schemes in respect of each year. This might be related to the financial year or the school year. The practical side of sharing school premises with the community raises issues of finance (e.g. running costs while the premises are in use when they otherwise would not be) and risk (of users from outside being injured while sharing the premises). These factors would no doubt have to be budgeted for when the annual budget is prepared, which argues for the financial year. Alternatively, it may be more appropriate for administrative arrangements such as these schemes to operate in relation to the school year. This is a policy matter and the Member has decided on the latter.
Paragraphs (3) and (4) deal with the Department’s guidance. Paragraph (3) would oblige schools to comply with the guidance on the preparation of schemes and on consultation. It is the intention to place the Department under a mandatory obligation to produce this guidance.
The opening words of paragraphs (5) and (6) are worded so as to allow for the possibility that there may be categories of school which do not come within (5)(a), (b) or (c). That is because it appears that schools may have delegated budgets in which case the scheme need not be approved other than within the school’s own administrative framework. The Department would retain its supervisory role through the annual report under paragraph (8). Paragraphs (6) and (7) are consequential on the requirement for approval. Paragraph (7) enables schools whose schemes are subject to approval to implement them on an interim basis.
Paragraph 9 enables schools to enter into arrangements with other schools or, in the case of controlled and/or Catholic maintained schools, with their umbrella bodies. An Education and Library Board might, for example, undertake the consultation on behalf of all controlled schools in its area.
Clause 2 is a commencement provision. The Article 140A regime needs to be put in place, including the issue of guidance notes by the Department. The suggested period is 12 months.
OTHER LEGISLATION
6. Should this Bill be passed, Articles 139 and 140 of the 1989 Order might be repealed or at least adjusted. However, the overlap between the existing law and the new proposals is not so great as to require to be dealt with in the Bill, and this seems best left to the Executive to take up
EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
7. Specifically in relation to equality, the Bill is designed to procure additional facilities for communities. For that purpose it will be important to ensure that it applies across the range of Northern Ireland’s grant-aided schools without discrimination between members of the community. The Bill is drafted so as to capture all grant-aided schools irrespective of the community they serve.
8. Under section 6(2)(c) of the 1998 Act, a provision is outside the Assembly’s legislative competence if it is incompatible with any of the convention rights as defined in the Human Rights Act 1998.
9. Article 14 of the Convention prohibits discrimination on any ground, including in particular religion and political opinion. What has been said about equality is relevant here. It follows that the proposals are compatible with Article 14.
10. Article 2 of the First Protocol to the Convention provides that no person shall be denied the right to education. The Bill concerns the sharing of educational facilities with the community when they are not in use for school purposes: it will not deprive schools of the use of their premises when needed for educational purposes.
Accordingly, it is considered that the proposals of the Bill are compatible with the Convention rights.
LEGISATIVE COMPETENCE
11. At Introduction the Member in charge of the Bill (Mr. David McNarry) had made the following statement under section 9 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998:
"In my view the Community Use of School Premises Bill would be within the legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly."
The Bill would make detailed provision for the administration of school facilities. Education is one of the matters for which the Assembly is responsible. The proposals are therefore within the general legislative competence of the Assembly and, in particular, do not fall within any of the categories in section 6(2) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
OPTIONS CONSIDERED
12. This is a Private Member’s Bill and the only option considered are the introduction of legislation to address inadequate use of school premises.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
13. It is accepted that costs associated with the running of premises outside school hours will occur. These would be difficult to quantify but are probably relatively minor when set against the total running costs of schools.