Clause 14
Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill
9:30 am
John Hayes (Shadow Minister, Innovation, Universities and Skills; South Holland and The Deepings, Conservative)
The test of reasonableness is not unusual in legislation or in law. However, in these terms, I would expect it to take into account what employer representatives felt was acceptable, and what the sector skills councils—which we mentioned earlier and which are centrally involved in apprenticeship frameworks—felt was tolerable. In discussion with Government, that mix could come to a definition of reasonableness that by all accounts is not what we have now. I have offered some examples of that to the Committee this morning.
Most employers—including those in the hon. Lady’s constituency, which I take careful note of—and those in mine, and their representative organisations, seem tofeel that at the moment we are not being reasonable about regulation, bureaucracy and red tape. To achieve the reasonableness that she personifies—which I merely seek to emulate—we need to lighten the burden rather than add to it.
The risk of all legislation is that it adds to administrative burdens. Almost by definition, that is the case. As we scrutinise the Bill, we should be determined to strip out all that is not necessary to our shared ambition to make apprenticeships a bigger part of how we respond to the economic downturn and rebuild the nation’s skills. In that spirit, I ask the hon. Lady, the Minister and others to consider the amendments carefully and I wait to hear what the Minister says with bated breath.