Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, in moving Amendment 238 I shall also speak to Amendment 241. I had some very helpful correspondence from the Minister over the holidays on this. My concern is to find out the objective of these subsections. My understanding of the Government’s objective is to reduce confusion in the marketplace, so that, where there are a number of very similar qualifications bearing different names, they should be jammed together and the awarding bodies made to be called simply "Edexcel’s English" or "AQA’s English", rather than having different names that create confusion in the marketplace. That is something which Ofqual should be able to do something about. I do not have much difficulty with that. Creating clarity is a reasonable objective for Ofqual, but I do not see how this does not apply to A-levels and Pre-U examinations. They are similar in outline and the transition between them so far as schools are concerned is not difficult. However, the Pre-U evolved because A-levels could not contain what the Pre-U wanted to do, and because of the restrictions implied by calling something an A-level, it was necessary to differentiate in order to innovate. It seems that we are giving Ofqual a power that again will tend to reduce innovation and competition in an area where those qualities should be sought out. A little extra comfort from the Minister would be much appreciated. I beg to move.