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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

Before my noble friend replies, I should like to do two things. First, I apologise to the Minister: at Tuesday’s proceedings, Hansard and I got in a muddle and attributed some words in a letter to the Minister when they were mine. I have so informed Hansard, which is correcting the record. It is in column GC 323. Secondly, on Tuesday my noble friend Lord Norton of Louth referred to what I might characterise as poacher/gamekeeper situations. He suggested that some of the provisions in the Bill might put the Learning and Skills Council on both sides of the fence. He might have wanted to cite this as a situation in which that could happen. The point is neither complicated nor difficult to understand in the light of my noble friend’s amendment. Should the proposal and advice given by the Learning and Skills Council be subject to the decision of the Secretary of State or should the council, having listened to whatever anybody else says, be responsible for the decision as well? The amendment simply says that the decision should rest with the Secretary of State and not be transferred to the Learning and Skills Council.