Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I give some support to the noble Viscount’s view that the number of references to regulations in this small section of the Bill is quite excessive. It gives the impression that you cannot do anything without reading a lengthy screed of regulations. I read it through with a young person who is working with me as an intern and we were both rather appalled by the degree to which the really very simple notion that an employee has the right to ask his employer if he might have time off for training—he has the right to ask, he does not necessarily have the right to take it—will become very complicated if he actually wants to do it. He will clearly have to have a special 63D form which he will have to fill in in the right way, and then there are all the complications about appeals, if he wants to appeal. The other day in Committee, we had a very good debate about the report produced by the committee chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Filkin, on the burden of regulations on schools. This is not about schools, but, as was pointed out then, a lot of attention is given to regulatory reform in the private sector, but not enough in the public sector. This is largely a question of regulations on the private sector, but nevertheless, I have quite a lot of sympathy with the noble Viscount, because the number of regulations proposed seems excessive.