My Lords, it gives me pleasure to welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Penn, to the Dispatch Box for the first time in a Bill Committee. May I say how well she is looking? If we do indeed sit until midnight on two evenings next week, as has been suggested, that will be useful practice for her because, in a few weeks’ time, she will discover that you take sleep where and when you can get it.
I will speak to Amendments 12 and 24 in my name; my noble friend Lord Rooker added his name to Amendment 12. The former would simply ensure that the Government’s local skills improvement plan guidance could be scrutinised by Parliament in the lowest form of scrutiny we have: the negative procedure. This guidance, which relates to co-operation with an employer representative body and, crucially, the matters to which the Secretary of State might have regard in deciding whether to approve and publish a plan, would take immediate effect but would allow the House to debate it if it were so minded. That is especially important because, as many noble Lords have said, this is a skeleton Bill so the detail of much of what we are debating at this point is vague or subject to ongoing or forthcoming consultations. I understand that that is why Ministers are unable to circulate a draft of the guidance, which would have been very helpful for all of us. I hope that the Minister will be able to assure your Lordships that the draft will appear well in advance of Report and that those directly impacted will be able to develop and shape it. However, in the meantime, I suggest that this amendment is entirely reasonable and appropriate given that there has been no opportunity for parliamentary scrutiny.
3.15 pm
Amendment 24 is a probing amendment regarding the criteria for determining the boundaries of a local skills improvement plan area. Every area in the UK needs a mix of provisions specific to its local context, community and sub-economy, as well as reflecting national strategies. However, the Bill is not explicit in certain features of the LSIP, including what constitutes “local”. On day one of Committee, my noble friend Lord Knight used his personal experience in the west of England to point out issues associated with living, studying or working near a county boundary or, as in my noble friend’s case, in an area where three counties meet. English local administration is bedevilled by inconsistent boundaries. A cynic would say, probably rightly, that this is one way in which Whitehall prevents localities and regions building up any real local autonomy. Divide and rule is a long-standing tactic.
The Bill does not specify what constitutes a local area in terms of the geographic footprints of the new LSIPS. Indeed, employer representative bodies are being invited to define their own localities for the purpose of skills planning, and, even in places where a local authority or metropolitan combined authority forms a well-recognised functional economic area with a long history of collaboration, there is no suggestion, far less a guarantee, that new local skills improvement plan proposals will follow existing economic footprints.
We have all seen the confusion that different interpretations of what constitutes a local area have caused in relation to coronavirus “stay local” advice. To some extent, the Minister addressed the issue in her response to group one on day one, but I hope that her colleague will be able to confirm how this will be determined for a local skills improvement plan. Is it a local, city or county definition, or something else? Will all metropolitan combined authorities be classified automatically as an area for local skills improvement plan purposes? Will the local areas align with democratic accountabilities? What about existing regional strategies or those yet to be developed? Will directly elected mayors or their communities have a say in the demarcation of their LSIP area? Will they be able to challenge the Secretary of State if they disagree or believe that they would be better served by a different definition of an area? I am fairly confident that I know the answer to the last two of those questions, but I look forward to the Minister’s response to the various points that I have highlighted. I beg to move.