Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I am not sure that I am much wiser at the end of that. I agree with the noble Lord that local authorities are in a position of great knowledge and potential leadership, and I hope there is nothing in my amendments that goes against that. What I do not see is how they are in a position to direct. The noble Lord talks about commissioning in relation to school places and then in relation to colleges. To the extent that a local authority commissions school places, it merely makes sure that places are available without specifying in any way what should be taught. You just commission a school, which acquires a board of governors and a headmaster and then goes off and decides what A-levels and GCSEs it will offer and whether it will have a diploma or vocational qualifications. They are decided entirely by the school. But as I understand it—I am sure that the noble Lord will correct me if I am wrong—commissioning in the sense employed in Clause 40 means specifying what particular courses should be taught and available, because otherwise the word "suitable" becomes quite difficult to parse. If what is required, as I say, is additional courses in hairdressing, how can the local authority secure it without really getting its fingers inside the operation of a college? What actually is meant by "secure"? If I have to secure the places that are available, it means that I have to ensure that they are not available to anyone else. I need them for people in my local authority area. If I am going to commission 20 new places to study hairdressing at, say, New College in Huddersfield, I am not going to have people in Manchester coming in and taking those places, because that would mean that I had not secured them. To secure them must mean not only directing the college to provide them but also directing it not to admit people from other local authorities.