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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 50: 50: Clause 24 , page 17, line 25, leave out from ““specify,”” to ““period””)”” in line 26 and insert ““for each levy period, a period (in this Act referred to as a ““base”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 51 to 55 and 58 to 66. Current practice is for industrial training boards to submit proposals for levy orders annually—indeed, we debated two orders only last week—but levy rates have remained unchanged for a number of years. Consequently, Clause 24 amends Section 11 of the Industrial Training Act 1982 so that, where an industrial training board wishes to raise a levy, it must, subject to some exceptions, submit levy proposals covering a three-year period. Schedule 1 makes amendments to other provisions in the 1982 Act in consequence of the changes to a three-year levy order model. Schedule 2 repeals certain provisions of the 1982 Act in consequence of the changes to be made by Clauses 23 and 24. Those proposed changes were welcomed in Grand Committee. The proposals are of a purely technical and drafting nature. They make some minor adjustments to the drafting of Clause 24 and the consequential amendments to the 1982 Act, to ensure that the drafting is consistent overall and that all the necessary consequential changes have been made. I stress that the changes do not alter the intended effect of Clauses 23 or 24 or the consequential amendments made to the 1982 Act. I beg to move. On Question, amendment agreed to.