---

Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

I have listened as carefully as I could to everything that has been said. I must admit to having been carried away in a flood of words from time to time, and I remain uncertain that a sound case has been made for the disappearance of the 47 councils. It may indeed have been a mistake to make this particular decentralised structure statutory in 2000, only six years ago, but there it is until Parliament changes it. Another decentralised structure is now needed, not only on paper but in fact, and I am grateful for the Minister’s offer to write to me about the 150 local partnership teams. After all, the further away you are from your partner, the more difficult it is to establish a successful partnership, unless of course mutual tolerance amounting to indifference is your objective. There are two further points to make. The Minister has said that regionalisation is a response to the Foster report, which concluded that the sector was overbureaucratic and overregulated. The more centralised an organisation is and the further away from the action it is, the more bureaucratic matters become. The closer people working in partnership are, the more likely it is that they will be able to handle the necessary procedures with a lighter and more certain touch. Pulling resources back into fewer offices and larger regions will increase bureaucracy not diminish it. As to overregulation, we know that there is a good deal of frustration in the sector and that the department seems to go along with that dissatisfaction. The strategy is to reduce regulation. We will have to wait and see how and whether the strategy is implemented. The Bill in fact adds to the Secretary of State’s powers, and adds duties to the LSC’s lists. We need a more detailed explanation of how the LSC will operate once the Bill is enacted. It would be a mistake simply to accept the disappearance of the 47 councils.