IN ADDITION to the big set-piece debates at Westminster, each week there is the adjournment debate - a series of lower-profile discussions initiated by individual MPs on specific subjects.

One of my first, nearly 30 years ago, was about a fast-food chain that was opening outlets in London without having first secured planning permission and whose commitment to health standards was being questioned.

They didn't do me the courtesy of returning a phone call before I made the speech, so I was even less sympathetic than I had planned to be. The Evening Standard gave the speech prominence and the chain's turnover dropped 20 per cent.

I later had a debate about the height requirement for policemen - answered by Shirley Summerskill. I was the tallest male MP and she the tallest woman MP - and we agreed that the height requirement for our police force should be lowered - and it has been.

Recently, I had an adjournment debate in the House of Commons on home education, having met some home educators in the constituency.

Not everyone knows that you don't have to send your children to school between the ages of five and 16. You can educate them at home - and you don't even have to tell the local education authority what you are doing.

For most people, the best place for their children to learn is at school and there are many excellent schools in North West Hampshire. However, it isn't the right answer for everyone, and I want to live in a country where people are not forced to use the institutions of the state if they don't want to or have lost confidence in them.

The Government is a bit sniffy about this. "My department recognises and respects the right to choose to home educate", in the words of the minister. That sounds as though he was giving planning permission for a nudist colony.

I didn't make much headway against the Minister for School Standards, David Miliband. I don't know where he was educated, but they did a first-class job.

My request was that home educators, who have saved the taxpayer money by not taking up a school place, shouldn't have to pay exam fees out of their own pocket.

But this was a step too far for the people's party, who lump home-educated children along with children at independent schools. So that battle remains to be won.

Of course, those educated at home may miss the thrill of the school report.

I remember my father reading my geography report from my first school. "Geography is not George's strong subject. He does well to find his way home after school."

And a colleague got this from his English teacher: "The dawning of legibility has revealed an inability to spell."