Education and Skills Bill

We have some queries about these amendments. As a general principle, it is appropriate for the local authority which receives payments to have control over those sums and to use them for relevant local purposes. Any transfer of the sums to the Secretary of State surely would require additional administration and bureaucracy. It is difficult to see quite what benefit would arise from that. The noble Baroness, Lady Verma, has said that the sums could bring about a conflict of interests, but, realistically, the sums in question under Clause 52 would be payable by employers under Clauses 22 and 28 or by a young person under Clause 47. The likelihood that the local authority will consider these to be useful streams of income is not great. In the case of young people, the sums payable will be small, and recovering them may not be simple. As employers will play a crucial part in delivering work experience for young people, local authorities are more inclined to encourage them to participate, rather than discourage them by issuing penalty notices with a free hand. These safeguards make it unlikely that these powers, if granted, would be misused by local authorities. In that context, we would not support the deletion of the two lines which include the words, "““may be used by the authority for the purposes””." It seems more appropriate to amend, "““paid in accordance with regulations to the Secretary of State””," to, "““regulations made by the Secretary of State””."