Clause 10

Part of Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:00 am on 12 March 2009.

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Photo of Siôn Simon Siôn Simon Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills 9:00, 12 March 2009

Good morning, Mrs. Humble. We are about to discuss technical, drafting amendments. Subsection (2)(b) of clause 10 requires that the apprenticeship sector concerned must be stated in the framework. Amendment 157 is intended to make it clear that only one apprenticeship sector will be stated in each apprenticeship framework. The original drafting on that point was ambiguous.

Clause 15 enables the Secretary of State to make an order providing certain transitional provisions for an apprenticeship framework. The technical, drafting amendment to clause 15 has a mirror amendment to clause 20 on Wales. Amendments 163 and 171 put it beyond doubt that the sector to which the clauses refer is an apprenticeship sector as defined under clause 38.

Clause 23 provides the Secretary of State with the power to direct the chief executive of Skills Funding to prepare modifications to the specification of apprenticeship standards for England and submit them to the Secretary of State. Clause 23(4) makes it clear that the Secretary of State may not make an order bringing modifications into effect unless he is satisfied that the modified specification complies with the requirements of the content of the specification under clause 25. Amendment 173 is a technical, drafting amendment merely intended to achieve consistency with clause 22(2), which deals with the same point when an order is made bringing a specification of standards into effect for the first time. Amendment 174 is a mirror amendment in respect of Wales.

I draw attention to several drafting amendments to clause 30, which sets out the meaning of “apprenticeship agreement” in England and Wales. The agreement will be a contract entered into between the apprentice and the employer. It will contain terms that will be set out in a prescribed form. It is intended that the agreement will  include, among other things, on-the-job training and learning away from the work station. Amendment 175 reflects the fact that clause 30(4) is making provision about circumstances in which an agreement will be treated as meeting one of the criteria for being an apprenticeship agreement under subjection (2). Removing “apprenticeship” from the first line of page 14 of the Bill avoids circularity in the provision.

Amendment 176 ensures that the three-year period specified under clause 30(5) is instead specified under subsection (4)(a), the subsection to which it relates. Amendments 177 and 178 are consequent on that amendment, and amendment 186 corrects a cross-reference under clause 79. Finally, amendment 187 is a technical, drafting amendment to make it clear that the statutory instrument containing regulations made under clauses 5 or 9 is subject to an annulment by resolution of the National Assembly for Wales.