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Industrial Training Levy (Engineering Construction Board) Order 2005

My Lords, I thank both noble Baronesses for contributing to this short but valuable debate. The noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe, asked about the Government’s investment in science and engineering; she was critical. There is a skills strategy in play. In July 2003, we published 21st Century Skills: Realising our Potential, which set out a cross-government agenda for tackling longstanding weaknesses in the demand and supply of skills. Our aim is to ensure that employers have the right skills to support the success of their businesses and that individuals have the right learning and skills they need   to be both employable and personally fulfilled. Significant progress has been made; the infrastructure is largely in place to tackle the issues that the noble Baroness raised. On higher and further education, in 2003 we launched the Success for All strategy to raise standards and improve post-16 participation. That continues its work to improve the quality of teaching and learning. The national roll-out of the first phase of teaching and learning materials continues for the Success For All strategy. The noble Baroness will of course know about the centres for vocational excellence that have been set up in further education. She will know that we have invested £220 million in further education to support centres of vocational excellence. The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, asked what had happened to the construction board order. That was passed in February this year and was debated in Grand Committee. The noble Baroness also referred to the problem of free riders. I know that she has raised this issue previously. She saw that the levy system is to some extent an answer to that problem because it shares the costs of training across the whole industry, so that firms which do little or no training nevertheless contribute to the costs of training carried out by others. So, to some extent, it is a block on the free rider problem. I thank noble Lords for this short debate. The proposals before the House relate to a specific industry, the engineering construction industry. It continues to be the collective view of employers in this industry that training should be funded through a statutory levy system in order to secure a sufficient pool of skilled labour. I believe from our useful debate that this is not in dispute. I believe that the order should be approved and I commend it to the House. On Question, Motion agreed to.