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Jobs for the Girls: Two Years On

I will certainly take that up with my colleagues in the relevant Departments who are tackling the issue daily. My hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley asked about the Ofsted review of practices in flexible adult education. That work is ongoing, and I cannot give a time scale for publication, but I shall try to find out what the likely time scale is. I understand that there is not, as yet, a planned publication date. Various hon. Members referred to apprenticeships, and in January the Government set out their plans to expand the number and range of apprenticeships in England, including proposals to increase the take-up and completion rates of apprenticeships by learners who are currently under-represented in the programme. We recognise the under-representation, and are trying to ensure that it is tackled. The Learning and Skills Council is spending £16.5 million to fund up to 8,000 adult apprenticeships this year for priority groups, including women and people from ethnic minorities who seek to enter a career in areas where they are under-represented. The equality Bill—I shall say a little more about that later—provides the capacity for those choosing between equally qualified candidates for jobs to consider the make-up of the work force. That is called positive action in some places, and to my mind it is obviously important that companies that want the benefit of having more women in their work force and a better and more diverse mix of skills and people may want to make that choice, and why should they not do so overtly? We shall consider that in the upcoming legislation. My hon. Friend also referred to the quality part-time work initiative and the fact that her Sub-Committee had wanted rather more money for that than was found. I acknowledge that that was said. The 12 pilot initiatives that were funded have taken place in different sectors, and we are expecting a final report on them soon. I cannot yet say exactly what impact each one has had, or whether they have been successful and made a difference, but we should have some idea in the not-too-distant future of how they did because they have now finished. My hon. Friend may know that we have reconvened the women and work commission, which can consider the outcome of those pilots, and no doubt it will have something to say to us when the report comes back to us, which we expect to be in the spring 2009.