Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I do not think that we are in love with the YPLA, at least not on this side of the Committee. Nevertheless we are now moving to the clauses on its structure and how it should go about its business. The amendment attempts to lay down one element in its committee structure. I wondered for a while whether this amendment might not have been more appropriate in the third schedule to the Bill, but I decided that I would move it here as it covers such a fundamental issue—how the YPLA will go about dispersal of funds—that it needs to be separated from the general section on committees in Schedule 3 and should be in the main body of the Bill. I think that not only because we have seen with the Learning and Skills Agency a fairly disastrous handling of capital building projects, but because over long experience of funding bodies of various kinds—we have had an awful lot in recent years—it is easy for them to become obsessed with the revenue aspects, which is understandable in a way. They have to decide who gets how much this year and whether somebody gets a bit more, or a bit less; whether they approve this scheme or that scheme; and all the things that we talked about in earlier clauses. It is easy for the capital projects to be tucked away with nobody responsible or, worse, a cabal of two or three of the most senior officers taking the decisions by themselves. I know that the Association of Colleges feels strongly about this amendment. It has suffered badly from what happened with the LSC and is keen to have a structure in place with the YPLA that ensures that capital projects are properly considered, that there is a committee in place with sole responsibility to ensure that the building projects for both further education and sixth-form colleges are considered carefully and in some detail, and that the budget for them is monitored with somebody making sure that the money is there. I understand that that did not quite happen with the LSC. It is very important that it is in the main part of the Bill that that is one of the two main streams of finance for which the YPLA will be responsible—the revenue and the capital—and therefore, rather than tucking it in as part of the committee structure, I want it up here in the main body of the Bill. I propose that at the end of the clause that describes the YPLA's financial responsibilities we should add provision for a committee to oversee provision for capital building projects. I beg to move.