I rise to ask the House to consider the petition of 29 of my constituents who are involved in home education. I myself have been involved with many of them. On the whole, they offer their children an excellent education. They are already properly regulated by the elective home education guidelines in Dorset, and I see no reason why they should not be able to be so regulated in the future. The petition requests that the House of Commons urges the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families either not to bring forward, or to withdraw, his proposals to implement the Badman report.

Following is the full text of the petition:

[The Petition of persons resident in the West Dorset parliamentary constituency,

Declares that they are concerned about the recommendations of the Badman Report, which suggests closer monitoring of home educators, including a compulsory annual registration scheme and right of access to people's homes for local authority officials; further declares that the Petitioners believe the recommendations are based on a review that was extremely rushed, failed to give due consideration to the evidence, failed to ensure that the data it collected were sufficiently robust, and failed to take proper account of the existing legislative framework.

The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families either not to bring forward, or to withdraw, proposed legislative measures providing for tighter registration and monitoring of children educated at home in the absence of a thorough independent inquiry into the condition and future of elective home education in England; but instead to take the steps necessary to ensure that the existing Elective Home Education Guidelines for Local Authorities are properly implemented, learning from current best practice, in all local authorities in England.

And the Petitioners remain, etc.]

[P000720]

I wish to present a petition on behalf of more than 250 residents in the former mining village of Thurnscoe in my constituency.

The petitions states:

The Petition of residents of Thurnscoe in Barnsley and others,

Declares that when the Thurnscoe branch of HSBC closes on the fifth of February, it will mean that customers will have to travel to either the Wath branch or the Barnsley branch, both of which are approximately nine miles away.

Further declares that travelling to either of the other branches is difficult because bus services are only once an hour, and because many affected people are OAPs without any other means of transport.

The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to take steps to ensure that the Thurnscoe branch of HSBC remains open for one or more days a week.

And the Petitioners remain, etc.

[P000721]

This petition comes mainly from students at Fairfield high school.

The petition states:

The Petition of residents of Bristol and others,

Declares that the Petitioners disapprove of the fact that homosexuals do not have the right to a legal ceremony of marriage.

The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to bring forward legislation to give homosexuals the right to a legal ceremony of marriage.

And the Petitioners remain, etc.

[P000707]

This petition states:

The Petition of residents of Bristol and others,

Declares that the Government should fulfil its responsibilities as a high contracting party to the Geneva Convention.

The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to immediately take steps to institute a war crimes investigation in the UK into Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip between 27th December and 18th January 2009, and for the UK prosecuting authorities to search out and prosecute (or extradite for trial elsewhere) all suspected war criminals identified by the investigation; and urges the Government to seek a binding resolution at the UN Security Council to establish an international commission of inquiry into the Gaza attacks and the referral of potential cases to the International Criminal Court.

And the Petitioners remain, etc.

[P000706]