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Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, I join my noble friend and the Liberal Democrats in recommending these amendments—or, at the very least, the spirit of these amendments. With all the efforts that we have made to make Ofqual independent, it is enormously important that it should turn its mind to being the benchmark for examination standards. That cannot be done without evidence. It must be done, over a long time, on the basis of a regular series of relatively standard assessments that are not affected by changes in the national curriculum or by changes in emphasis that rightly come from Ministers. These cause examinations to evolve and change over time and make it hard to pin down what is happening on standards. It is difficult to do—it is not a perfect science—and Ofqual needs all the help that it can get to get it right.