Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments 162, 166, 168 and 184. In doing so, I will refer to a number of government amendments in this group which, while welcome as a step in the right direction, do not go far enough. The issues are the level and conditions of fee capping, the review of fee-capping decisions and the fairness of appeals against them, and the fairness of reviews of decisions to withdraw recognition from an awarding body. It is important that any decision on fee capping does not put undue burdens on colleges, which currently spend £170 million a year on exam entrance fees—for example, Leyton Sixth Form College in east London has 1,900 students and last year paid £284,000 in exam fees. Schools too pay very large sums. This is an enormous amount of public money and it should not be allowed to rise exponentially. That is why we have tabled Amendment 158. Can the Government assure us that this enormous financial burden will not get any further out of hand, and how Ofqual will ensure that that happens? Amendment 162 recognises that Ofqual will not be able to delivers its aims unless it is given the remit of regulating the qualifications system as a whole, rather than the narrow remit of regulating qualifications providers. In Committee the Minister—the noble Lord, Lord Young—said that our earlier amendment on this matter, Amendment 233, would give Ofqual the responsibility of regulating the efficiency of the qualifications system without having the power to do so. He said: ""It would not be able to do anything to secure the efficiency of the wider system".—[Official Report, 15/10/09; col. 404.]" However, there are things that Ofqual can do to assist the efficiency of the market within its powers as currently drafted. For example, it can require awarding bodies to provide certain types of information to schools and colleges to assist them to make efficient purchasing decisions. Our understanding is that Ofqual is already considering this. We understand the Government’s concerns, so we have proposed a good middle ground in Amendment 162. This would require Ofqual in performing its functions to have regard to the, ""efficiency of relevant markets for regulated qualifications"." It would no longer be an objective—something Ofqual must aim to achieve—but simply something Ofqual were required to take into account. I hope the noble Baroness will be able to accept this. Amendment 166 is about the fair operation of the fee-capping powers. It was tabled in the same form in Committee and I am afraid that the Government’s attempt in Amendment 165 to come some way towards us on this matter is just not good enough. In replying, the Minister suggested that it would not be practicable for Ofqual to carry out a market review before imposing a fee cap. But all the other regulators do this and Ofqual, if it is doing its job well, will probably have all the relevant information immediately to hand. We on these Benches feel it is important, in the interests of fairness and to protect innovation and choice, that Ofqual does not impose a fee cap unless it has taken the right precautions and assembled all the relevant facts. I hope that the Minister will be able to accept the need for this, so that Ofqual can be seen to be operating fairly. That brings me nicely to Amendments 168 and 184, both of which relate to an independent appeals process. Amendment 168 relates to decisions on fee capping and Amendment 184 to decisions to withdraw recognition from an awarding body. A body whose main objective is to restore public confidence in qualifications should have the fairness of its own operations right at the top of its priorities. In setting it up in legislation, it is our duty to ensure that its procedures are fair. I do not think that it is fair, in Clause 135(5)(a) and Clause 148(9). For the person to be a senior member of Ofqual staff who is not involved in the original decision is just not independent enough. I welcome government Amendments 167 and 183 as an attempt to make the reviewer someone outside Ofqual. The Government have accepted that any member of Ofqual staff would be compromised in that situation, which is why my two amendments seek to take the matter right away and put it in the hands of someone competent outside Ofqual—or outside the DCSF and government as a whole. Surely, there are competent people other than civil servants, bless them, who could do this job and in whose judgment both sides could have confidence. It would be even better if that person’s competence and independence could be accepted by both sides in the dispute. I hope that the Government will continue to demonstrate their willingness to listen to reason and accept at least the principle of the amendments, if they cannot accept the amendments as such. I shall say a word about Amendment 180, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, to which I have added my name. He will say more but, following the Minister’s explanation about connected activities in Committee, the impact on the credibility of UK qualifications or the fair operation of the system are the only legitimate reasons for Ofqual to have the right to look into other activities of the awarding bodies. Other than this, it is none of its business. If that is the reason for the connected activities reference, it should be put clearly and transparently in the Bill, as the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, suggested. I also support the amendments proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Perry, on timeliness. I beg to move.