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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, has summed up the Government’s position fully. The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, was kind enough to say that the Government might be listening on this Bill; I appreciate the compliment. As she knows, we have spent six years listening, to her in particular, and the reason why we have come forward with these proposals goes back to her initial suggestion that we should have a regional structure for the Learning and Skills Council and not the system of 47 local learning and skills councils that we initially set up. She therefore knows that we listen intently and sometimes reach the right position eventually. Having arrived at the structure of the nine regional learning and skills councils, plus, as the noble Baroness said, the 150 local partnership teams, which we expect broadly to mirror the areas of local authorities, we do not think that it would be a good idea to set in place another structure, least of all a statutory structure, although we completely recognise the importance of engaging with the sub-regional groupings and consulting at that level, as she rightly said. We believe, though, that the amendment as it is framed would place an additional bureaucratic burden on the Learning and Skills Council and on local authorities. The partner authorities that, under the amendment, the Learning and Skills Council would need to consult when establishing the proposed sub-regional committees are defined in the amendment by Clause 79 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill; they are concerned with the aspect of that Bill that deals with local area agreements. The list of bodies for consultation under that clause is extensive. It includes bodies such as the English Sports Council, the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, the fire and rescue authorities—and I could go on. We believe that consultation by the Learningand Skills Council with bodies such as thesewould be onerous and unnecessary. Moreover, as the amendment proposes that the committees would be statutory, further subsequent changes would needto go through the whole process of statutory consultation again with the same bodies. While we share the objective of the noble Baroness to ensure that there are effective means of sub-regional consultation and engagement by the Learning and Skills Council—the LSC is, indeed, committed to that—we do not believe that putting this arrangement in the Bill would be a productive step forward.