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Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I follow my noble friend in supporting what the noble Lord, Lord Layard, said a moment ago. My interest in the House stems from my interest in small businesses. I have been in small business all my life. I am reassured that we are still raising the issue of exactly how to see that there will be enough apprenticeship opportunities in this country and talking about how this could be funded. That is important for the small business community, and is such an important aspect of apprenticeships, not just for providing apprenticeship places but for small businesses to be able to gain from having apprenticeships. I remember that some time back we were talking about the retail area and how important it is to help the small-shop community—I have often taken up issues of small shops in my time in Parliament—to be able to obtain some apprentices and to enable them to engage with apprenticeships rather than finding them a burden. There are many different issues here, and I congratulate my colleagues, the noble Lord, Lord Layard, and my noble friend Lady Walmsley, on saying that this is an issue that we must keep our eye on. Hopefully, we will produce some tangible solutions.