Clause 24
Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill
1:15 pm
John Hayes (Shadow Minister, Innovation, Universities and Skills; South Holland and The Deepings, Conservative)
I have no desire to delay the Committee unduly, but these matters are important and it is useful to give the Minister the opportunity to put some of the detail on record.
Clause 24 makes it clear that if a specification of apprenticeship standards for England is brought into effect under clause 22, or an existing specification is modified under clause 23, frameworks that have been issued under clause 12 may not meet the requirements of the new or modified specification. Subsection (1) provides that a recognised English framework that fails to comply with a new or modified specification will not automatically cease to be recognised, and subsection (2) states that orders under clause 22, subject to the negative resolution procedure, may provide for such a framework to cease to have effect as a recognised English framework. My question is simple, and I know that the Minister will have the answer to hand. What is the timetable for that process? Clearly, if there has to be further parliamentary authority under the negative resolution procedure, there will be a time during which the framework still exists before it ceases. What is that time frame, and what issues need to be considered regarding frameworks that fall between the cracks and into that gap?