Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

With respect to the noble Lord, Lord Elton, again there is the impression that this will somehow be a handed-down process. It will not work that way. The RDAs will have a duty to consult the local authorities. It is in their interests to ensure that the skill requirements of local authorities are reflected in any regional skills strategy. I do not understand what the motivation would be to do anything else but that. As the noble Lord rightly says, they have a vested interest in ensuring that there is a sign-off process, so it would be rather self-defeating to develop a skills strategy in isolation and then seek to impose that when the very people whom they are seeking to impose it on in effect have a veto. I stress again that this is a process in which people work together co-operatively to ensure that they develop a regional skills strategy that genuinely reflects the requirements of local authorities, employers and learners across the region. Again, the proof of this particular pudding will be in the eating.