UK Parliament / Open data

Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 171, 181 and 182. In Amendment 170, as I made clear in Committee, I would like to see the power of Ofqual to intervene in fee capping removed altogether. I do not believe that it is necessary; it is really not a proper part of a regulator concerned with the academic and educational standards to be involved in the pricing and costing. I still believe, although the Minister teased me about a perfect market, that the market works perfectly well and needs no intervention from anyone. The Secretary of State at any moment in time can always intervene with a heavy hand by simply declaring his or her displeasure. Awarding bodies would probably jump very quickly to that. I accept that the Government have come a long way in their amendments to meet my concerns and those of many other noble Lords. I thank Ministers for having addressed the concerns to a very large degree. I feel much more supportive of Amendment 168 than of Amendment 167, simply because the independence of the person who is to make the judgment in the government amendment has to appear only to Ofqual to be independent, whereas in the amendment proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, the person has to appear independent to the organisation subjected to the fee capping, which is a much healthier way in which to describe the independence. I hope that the Government take that on board at a later stage. Meanwhile I thank the Government for having met some of our objections to the fee capping. Amendments 181 and 182 introduce the concept of timeliness, which we discussed in Committee. If Ofqual is to impose various kinds of draconian sanctions on any awarding body, it is vital that it should do so in a timely manner. In Committee, the Minister seemed to think that timeliness simply meant quickness or speed. Of course, it does not. You can be slow but timely; what matters about timeliness is that the time is appropriate and takes into consideration all the factors involved, not least the concerns of the young people who will follow the qualifications that may be removed or drastically altered by this. Will the Minister consider again the importance of putting in the Bill something that ensures that, when Ofqual moves in this fashion—to sanction or to close down an operation, or part of an operation, of an awarding body—it pays attention to doing so in a timely way?
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
714 c294-5 
Session
2008-09
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Back to top