Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I am grateful to the Minister for her full response. On Amendment 272, I am also grateful for her assurance that the awarding bodies will be consulted by the QCDA, because they have a great deal of expertise to offer. In relation to academies, she says that the detail is tied up in the funding agreements. The difficulty is that time and again there are individual funding agreements and if you want to know what is happening you have to look at each funding agreement to see precisely what it is. I do not think that that is a satisfactory situation. It would be much better if the academies were brought within the general body of schools. Turning to the main amendments that we put forward—Amendments 269B and 269C—I take on board what the Minister says. Of course, the Secretary of State has the expertise available to him and many of those who currently sit on the board are experts. We proposed changing the numbers because we wanted two-thirds to represent those who have expertise in education and it is much easier to get two-thirds of 12 or 15 than it is of eight or 13. It struck us that, if all three sets of expertise were represented, it would be a good idea to have slightly more people than a minimum of eight and that it would be a good idea to have a number divisible by three. I am grateful to the Minister for her positive reply, which we may talk about further. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 269B withdrawn. Amendment 269C not moved. Schedule 11 agreed. Clause 169 : Objective Amendments 270 and 271 not moved. Clause 169 agreed. Clause 170 : General duties Amendment 272 not moved. Clause 170 agreed. Clause 171 : Qualifications within the QCDA’s remit Amendment 273 not moved. Clause 171 agreed. Amendments 273A and 273B not moved. Clause 172 : Qualifications: general functions Amendment 274 not moved. Clause 172 agreed. Clause 173 agreed.