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Education and Skills Bill

I join the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, in her puzzlement about how Clauses 22 and 23 are meant to work. What sources of information can a local authority draw on to reach the required conclusions? As far as I can see—perhaps there is a provision elsewhere—a local authority would need information from the Revenue to know who was employed. The basic fact it would have to establish is that someone is employed by a particular employer. When I have employed young people, I cannot recall having to inform any arm of the state other than the Revenue. That seems to me to be the only source of that information. Even if a local authority had such information, it would then have to be satisfied that the employer had taken all such steps as are reasonable, but the employer has no duty to provide it with any information concerning that. So the local authority could only operate in the dark as regards what actually happened and what processes the employer undertook to ascertain that. Under those circumstances and presuming that there is no information forthcoming from the employer—why should he provide information merely so that he can be fined?—on what basis could a local authority ever reach the conclusion that it is asked to reach in Clause 22(1)?