Education and Skills Bill
5:00 pm
Jim Knight: From my days of being director of a small business, I do not think that we would have had any problem in enforcing this, but, as ever, we need to make an extremely cautious assumption that there may be some problems. In essence, I am happy about the burdens on employers and have chosen not to agree with the TUC on extending them hugely further.
I do not believe that there is a duty to police participation. There is a duty in respect of initial arrangements in clause 24, but that is really about that initial conversation and being satisfied, as an employer, that the young person is going to fulfil their duty. That might involve producing a letter from a college to say that they are enrolled on a course, for example; that duty is then fulfilled. Clause 25—the only other clause where enforcement can be taken according to clause 27—concerns a situation where an employee comes forward and says, “I’ve changed my arrangements from those I initially set out when I commenced employment with you.” That is a conversation about whether or not that interferes unreasonably with the operation of the business, or whether or not the business can accommodate it. Those are perfectly reasonable employment practices, that even a small business can accommodate. As ever, we have been cautious in our impact assessment and we have allowed for that.