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Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

There is no parallel with Ofwat or Ofgem because they deal with individual households, which do not have the expertise or knowledge to do any bargaining themselves. The position of Ofqual is different. It deals with powerful institutions. Secondary schools have budgets of several million pounds and are very high powered. Their examinations officers are expert and know exactly what they are doing. I agree there are lots of imperfect markets, and we have seen a lot of them in the past few years, but this is a perfect market in the sense that there are very sophisticated consumers and highly competitive providers. The OFT would prevent any cartel developing among the examination bodies. However, I recognise that the argument is falling on very deaf ears, so I am happy to leave it at that.