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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

The noble Viscount said that there had been a flood of words, most of which, I have to say, were from me in defending the first three clauses, including the changes made in Clause 3. I do not have a great deal to add to what I said earlier, which I believe sufficiently justified the steps that we have taken. We believe we gave a satisfactory response to the call made by Sir Andrew Foster in his report, which the noble Viscount will have seen, for a simplification of regulation and administration in the sector. That call mirrors other calls from a wide variety of people, including business leaders who called for a reduction in the Learning and Skills Council’s own bureaucracy and a move towards a more streamlined structure. It also follows our White Paper commitment to make the Learning and Skills Council more streamlined and responsive. Again, the White Paper set out the arguments for that at great length. Although I know that the noble Viscount, unusually, does not welcome the reductions in costs that we have set out, which come from a reduction in bureaucracy and staffing, I believe that they are widely welcomed in the sector. The sector as a whole believes that administrative overheads have been reduced so far and will be reduced further with the additional £40 million that we hope to save through the Bill. It believes that that is a welcome step forward. We believe that that is a significant justification for the measures in the opening clauses, particularly given that the move towards a regional structure for learning and skills councils is taking place alongside the creation of 150 local partnership teams, which will give us the advantages of local responsiveness on the part of the council and more local responsiveness from the 47 local learning and skills councils than has been possible, while having a more streamlined national and regional organisation for the performance of the statutory functions of the council. These proposals will provide the LSC with much greater flexibility to work with local partners. They will reduce bureaucracy and increase local responsiveness. That is our justification for the measures, but I will be happy to engage with the noble Viscount further when he has had a chance to study the flood of words more fully. Clause 3 agreed to. Clause 4 [Strategies for functions of Council]: