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Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

May I express a general worry? The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, who is not in his place, reinforced the point that, if you are the chief executive of a non-departmental public body, you are very conscious of how much independence you have. Your independence can be circumscribed, of course, by a long and complicated Act of Parliament that sets out all sorts of criteria to cover what you should think about and what you should do or not do in certain circumstances; it can also be circumscribed by the ability of the Secretary of State to change the rules in the middle of the game. Given my experiences in non-departmental public bodies, I think that there is too much in this list of instructions. Our recent debates seem to indicate that, if the Minister could find some way of reducing the amount of imperatives contained in these clauses between now and Report, that would be enormously helpful.