Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I think I may have to refer to my notes and do that in a moment. First, I wish to refer to the remarks of the hon. Member for Bristol, West (Stephen Williams), who was concerned about whether the expected provision of information, advice and guidance on apprenticeships had been strengthened by the amendments. I can give him that assurance. The Government always intended that information should be given to everybody, not only to those whom the giver thought might be suitable for an apprenticeship. We recognised that our original drafting did not make that clear, and we have improved it, but our intention to ensure that everybody had information about apprenticeships was never in doubt. On the question the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings has just asked me, I understand that Lord Layard's concern was that the term ““scheme”” was redolent of projects introduced during the 1980s, such as the youth training scheme, and that it might be deemed a derogatory term if it were used rather than one such as ““offer””, which is much more positive. That was the reason for the change. It was a semantic change, but nevertheless one that the Government were happy to accept. Lords amendment 1 agreed to. Lords amendments 2 to 33 agreed to.