Ghost children: Labour to force vote on creation of list of those not in school
Labour is aiming to force a vote on the creation of a list of children out of school, as it seeks to shine a spotlight on the number of youngsters missing lessons under the current government.
Announcing their plans, the opposition party highlights that absences have reached “historic” levels since the Conservatives took power in 2010 – increasing by 40% since then.
The phenomenon has also become known as “ghost children”.
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Sky News ‘ghost children’ coverage praised
Severe absences – missing more than 50% of school days – have tripled since the same date.
Analysis by the party claims that one in three children sitting their GCSEs this year have missed nearly three months of secondary school since the pandemic.
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Labour says it wants council-maintained lists of children not on school rolls.
The party is planning on using an opposition day on Tuesday – when they get to choose the topic debated in the Commons – to propose the legislation be heard on Wednesday 7 February.
Opposition days tend to be political and can be easily defeated by the government if it needs to utilise its majority – although the debates can prove sticky if centred on a controversial topic, as seen by the fracking vote which precipitated the collapse of Liz Truss’s premiership.
Labour has highlighted the backing of ministers and Tory MPs previously leant to creating such registers or lists.
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The illusive ‘ghost children’ register
Creating a register of children not in school has been talked about a lot, not just by political parties, but by local councils and schools whose job it is to make sure children attend class.
But to date, no such register exists. Proposals to legislate for a new national register were once part of the Government’s now-scrapped Schools Bill.
In December 2022, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan told MPs on the Education Select Committee that a register for children not in school would remain a priority for the Government, but legislation to create a register has yet to be put forward.
Last summer, in an interview with Sky News, I asked Ms Keegan when the Government would re-introduce the idea.
She said: “I don’t have the exact answer because it’s a parliamentary process that we have to go through, but we do intend to put it on a statutory footing and we will do that as soon as as the parliamentary time allows.”
And since then there has been no progress on introducing one. The Department for Education has announced an additional 18 “attendance hubs” in England, which are run by schools with strong attendance records who share their expertise with schools that need help.
And a national communications campaign on the importance of attendance has also been launched to target parents and carers.
But Labour’s intervention on the issue could be significant and popular amongst those who have campaigned for registers.
And with an estimated 1.8 million children now persistently absent from school, missing more than 10 per cent of lessons, the problem is an urgent one.
The government had promised to introduce a register within the Schools Bill, which was announced under the then education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, in May 2022 when Boris Johnson was still prime minister.
However, the bill was scrapped in December of that year by Gillian Keegan, appointed to the schools brief by Rishi Sunak.
Mrs Keegan did tell the Commons’ Education Select Committee at the time that the concept of a register was “definitely a priority”.
Nick Gibb, who was schools minister at the time, told the same committee in July 2023 that the “register of children not in school is important, and we consulted on it”.
He added: “Again, we do not have a legislative vehicle to introduce it, but we are still committed to doing so.”
A similar bill was introduced by Conservative MP Flick Drummond last year, and was backed by nine other Conservatives, including former education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson.
The attempt by Ms Drummond did not even progress past a first reading in the Commons, with no vote taking place.
She has made a second attempt with her The Children Not in School (Registers, Support and Orders) Bill, which is set for a second reading and vote on 15 March.
A report from the children’s commissioner found children who were persistently absent for years 10 and 11 were half as likely to get five GCSEs when compared to students more often in attendance.
It is understood that the government is still working with councils on non-statutory registers.
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Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said: “Conservative MPs, including the current schools minister and two former schools ministers, claim to support the register of children not in school but yet again have failed to deliver.
“The secretary of state has said it is her priority to legislate on a register ‘in the very short term’: that is why Labour is giving her and her Conservative colleagues an opportunity to make good on her pledge.
“There is no time to waste if we are to tackle the biggest challenge currently facing our schools – that is why Labour’s motion is so essential, and represents the first step of our long-term plan to get to grips with persistent absence.
“Only Labour is demonstrating the kind of leadership on education which will break down the barriers to opportunity and deliver better life chances for our children.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The government is committed to ensuring that all children, especially the most vulnerable in our society, are safe and have access to a suitable education.
“We remain committed to legislating to take forward the Children Not in School measures, and will progress these when the legislative timetable allows.”
Lawmakers in the US states of Minnesota and Alabama filed companion bills to identical existing bills that if passed into law, would allow each state to buy Bitcoin.
The Minnesota Bitcoin Act, or HF 2946, was introduced to the state’s House by Republican Representative Bernie Perryman on April 1, following an identical bill introduced on March 17 by GOP state Senator Jeremy Miller.
Meanwhile, on the same day in Alabama, Republican state Senator Will Barfoot introduced Senate Bill 283, while a bi-partisan group of representatives led by Republican Mike Shaw filed the identical House Bill 482, which allows for the state to invest in crypto, but essentially limits it to Bitcoin (BTC).
Twin Alabama bills don’t explicitly name Bitcoin
Minnesota’s Bitcoin Act would allow the state’s investment board to invest state assets in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and permit state employees to add crypto to retirement accounts.
It would also exempt crypto gains from state income taxes and give residents the option to pay state taxes and fees with Bitcoin.
Source: Bitcoin Laws
The twin Alabama bills don’t explicitly identify Bitcoin, but would limit the state’s crypto investment into assets that have a minimum market value of $750 billion, a criterion that only Bitcoin currently meets.
26 Bitcoin reserve bills now introduced in the US
Introducing identical bills is not uncommon in the US and is typically done to speed up the bicameral legislative process so laws can pass more quickly.
Bills to create a Bitcoin reserve have been introduced in 26 US states, with Arizona currently the closest to passing a law to make one, according to data from the bill tracking website Bitcoin Laws.
Arizona currently leads in the US state Bitcoin reserve race. Source: Bitcoin Laws
Pennsylvania was one of the first US states to introduce a Bitcoin reserve bill, in November 2024. However, the initiative was reportedly eventually rejected, with similar bills also killed in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
Related: North Carolina bills would add crypto to state’s retirement system
Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Wyoming are the five states thathave rejected Bitcoin reserve initiatives. Source: Bitcoin Laws
According to a March 3 report by Barron’s, “red states” like Montana have faced setbacks to the Bitcoin reserve initiatives amid political confrontations between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
Additional reporting by Helen Partz.
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Update (April 3, 5:43 am UTC): This article has been updated to add information on the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act.
The US House Financial Services Committee has passed a Republican-backed stablecoin framework bill, which will now head to the House floor for a full vote.
The Committee passed the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act, with a 32-17 vote on April 2, with six Democrats voting in favor.
The bill was introduced on Feb. 6 by committee Chair French Hill and the chair of its Digital Assets Subcommittee, Bryan Steil — reportedly drafted with the help of the world’s largest stablecoin issue, Tether.
Source: Financial Services GOP
The bill would provide rules around payment stablecoins, a crypto token tied to a currency such as the US dollar, and aims to ensure issuers give information about their business and how they back their tokens.
During an earlier markup session, the committee’s leading Democrat, Maxine Waters, who later voted against the bill, criticized her Republican peers for “setting an unacceptable and dangerous precedent” with the STABLE Act.
She said President Donald Trump could use the bill to allow his family’s stablecoin to be used in government payments, and argued the bill validates Trump “and his insiders’ efforts to write rules of the road that will enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.”
In late March, the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture launched a stablecoin, World Liberty Financial USD (USD1). Meanwhile, the US Housing Department, which oversees social housing, was reportedly looking to experiment with using stablecoins for some of its functions.
Stablecoin GENIUS Act also weaves through Congress
Other stablecoin-related bills are also working their way through Congress, including the Republican-led Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, which lays out oversight and reserve rules for issuers.
Related: Crypto has a regulatory capture problem in Washington — or does it?
The US Senate Banking Committee voted through the GENIUS Act in an 18-6 vote on March 13, after Senator Bill Hagerty, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, updated it following consultation with the Committee’s Democrats.
Before the vote, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said the updated GENIUS Act made “significant improvements to a number of important provisions” in areas such as consumer protections and authorized stablecoin issuers.
Both the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act will now wait until debate time on the floor of the House and Senate, respectively, before they head for a floor vote.
Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported on X that two unnamed crypto lobbyists said there is likely to be “a coordinated push behind the scenes over the next few weeks to get the two bills to mirror each other, as there are still some differences between them.”
Doing so would “avoid having to set up a so-called conference committee which is formed so members from both chambers can negotiate to create a final version of the bill everyone agrees on,” she added.
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Tulip Siddiq has told Sky News her “lawyers are ready” to handle any formal questions about allegations she is involved in corruption in Bangladesh.
Asked whether she regrets apparent links with the Bangladeshi Awami League political party, Ms Siddiq said “why don’t you look at my legal letter and see if I have any questions to answer… [the Bangladeshi authorities] have not once contacted me and I’m waiting to hear from them”.
The London MP resigned as a Treasury minister in January after being named in several corruption inquiries in Bangladesh.
In her first public comments since leaving government, Ms Siddiq said “there’s been allegations for months on end and no one has contacted me”.
Last month, the interim leader of Bangladesh told Sky News the MP had “wealth left behind” in the country “and should be made responsible”.
Lawyers acting for Ms Siddiq wrote to the Bangladeshi Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) several weeks ago saying the allegations were “false and vexatious”.
The letter said the ACC must put questions to Ms Siddiq “by no later than 25 March 2025” or “we shall presume that there are no legitimate questions to answer”.
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Staff from the NCA visited Bangladesh as part of initial work to support the interim government in the country.
In a post online today, the former minister said the deadline had expired and the authorities had not replied.
Sky News has approached the Bangladeshi government for comment.
The allegations against Ms Siddiq are focused on links to her aunt Sheikh Hasina – who served as the prime minister of Bangladesh for 20 years.
Ms Hasina was forced to flee the country in August following weeks of deadly protests.
She is accused of becoming an autocrat, with politically-motivated arrests, extra-judicial killings and other abuses allegedly happening on her watch. Hasina claims it’s all a political witch hunt.
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Ms Siddiq was found to have lived in several London properties that had links back to the Awami League political party that her aunt still leads.
She referred herself to the prime minister’s standards adviser Sir Laurie Magnus who said he had “not identified evidence of improprieties” but added it was “regrettable” Ms Siddiq had not been more alert to the “potential reputational risks” of the ties to her aunt.
Ms Siddiq said continuing in her role would be “a distraction” for the government but insisted she had done nothing wrong.
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