Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, Amendment 170 would have the effect of reducing the scope of paragraph 10 of Schedule 4, such that the Secretary of State would be able to direct the chief executive of skills funding regarding only the financial arrangements for the office and staff of the chief executive and not the other management and administrative arrangements. This is an important enabling power which allows the Secretary of State to issue directions to the chief executive of skills funding about the financial, management and administrative arrangements of the office of chief executive, should it be necessary to do so. Guidance will be available to the chief executive to ensure that the arrangements for the Skills Funding Agency in these areas are consistent with current Treasury and Cabinet Office guidelines and with public accountability rules on the financial management and administration of a public body. Issuing such guidance is crucial for the effective and proper handling of the considerable sums of public money which will be routed through the Skills Funding Agency as well as for the efficient and effective management of the organisation as a whole. If the Secretary of State considered that the chief executive or a member of his staff failed to adhere to any such guidance, these powers could be used to direct the chief executive to do so—and, as such, although I do not know if they equate to a back-stop, they are certainly powers of last resort. This power is not about seeking to control the chief executive. That individual certainly has powers that include reporting to Parliament through an annual report. It is about ensuring, through the power to give directions, that there are high standards of financial probity and administrative arrangements in place. I turn to a point made by the noble Viscount, Lord Eccles, who asked why it is necessary to have powers to direct the chief executive officer, who is a civil servant. It is because the chief executive officer has his own legal personality under the Act and is personally responsible for exercising his own statutory powers. I hope, with that explanation, that the noble Viscount will feel able to withdraw his amendment.