Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I am quite sure that the Minister will tell us that of course all of these splendid arrangements for consultation are already in place and there is no question but that that is how the Government intend that the legislation should be implemented. In my experience many amendments tabled by opposition parties are asking for things to be on the face of the Bill which Ministers assure us are there in intention and do not need to be on the face of the Bill. It would be very nice to say that this Bill, which as the Minister said earlier is quite difficult to follow and quite difficult to understand, nevertheless has some clear clarion principles which people can read and understand on the face of the Bill, and I think that one of them ought to be the involvement of employers, as in Germany where the apprenticeship scheme is entirely employer-led. I know the Minister will say, "Of course—that is exactly what we are trying to do here. We expect it to be employer-led", and I do not doubt that his briefing gives him several paragraphs of assuring us that that is exactly the way it will be. But I repeat that it would be very good to have on the face of the Bill a very clear statement of the involvement of employers—and indeed of the FE sector, which has to play a large part in implementing these apprenticeship proposals—and the fact that they will be consulted in the preparation of the framework.