Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

The point of Amendment 240A is to achieve exactly what the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, suggested. Ministers should indeed have responsibility for what is taught. Through the QCDA, they have it. That is the route of ministerial influence. They should not be put in a conflict of interest where they both determine the curriculum and then run around and alter the assessments. To keep the examination system clean from that sort of influence, it seems necessary to have, at most, a very restricted power to alter requirements that Ofqual can assure the public will not alter the standards. Ministers can still affect the standards.