I shall have to cut to the bone what I wanted to say on this Bill, but before I do so I must say how regrettable it is that only an hour and a half should be left in which to debate this most important Measure. We have spent a long time in discussing the prevention and punishment of crime, and the provisions of this Bill are probably of paramount importance in preventing crime by guiding young people in the right way at a most crucial time in their lives.

The main recommendations of the Ince Report are contained in paragraph 44, and refer to three extremely important matters which are linked, but which are, nevertheless, separate: first, the vocational guidance to be given before leaving school; second, the registration of the school-leaver with the Juvenile Employment Service; third, the interview with each registered person. Of these three recommendations, the second is being implemented in Clause 13—I do not think it is being done very well, but I must leave it at that.

I entirely agree with the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare (Mr. Orr-Ewing) in regretting that there is no form of compulsion about vocational guidance being given to pupils before they leave school. I speak with some knowledge of this, because I was working in the educational field for some time and have been in close touch with it ever since. There are already schemes in operation which purport to deal with these matters. Some schools co-operate with the juvenile employment officer of the Ministry, but many do not. There is no obligation upon them at all, nor will there be any if no compulsion is proposed in the Bill. There is a model scheme for education authorities which was issued by the Ministry, in which vocational guidance is stressed as being desirable. Now my right hon. Friend says, "It is not desirable or important enough to make it compulsory."

If my right hon. Friend wishes, I can call juvenile employment officers to verify, that in a large number of cases head teachers are trying unsuccessfully to give this guidance themselves. In many cases no guidance is being given, and school leavers are going into white-collar jobs and blind-alley jobs. It is, then, too late to pull them into the machinery. It is while they are at school that they need to have this guidance. The Ince Committee, a widely-based, influential and able body, also strongly recommended that the interview should be obligatory, that the interview should be while the pupil was at school and not after he had left. Although that is in the schemes accepted by education authorities, very largely it is ignored. I shall take steps later to try to get these things put into the Bill, but in the meantime I beg the Minister to think over them again.