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Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

If I may made the noble Baroness’s anxieties a little more understandable to the noble Lord, the difference seems quite simple. If the sector skills councils are mentioned in the Bill, their position is secure. If they are not, their continuance depends on the whim of central government, which cannot change them without legislation. The noble Baroness wants more than a ministerial assurance from a member of a Government which, whatever their fortunes, will not last very much longer. She would prefer something on statute, which would give some reassurance to people in the—I was going to say "the trade"—profession, that things would continue as the noble Lord says that they will, even when he is not there to guarantee it.