Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (Consequential Amendments) (England and Wales) Order 2010

My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing the orders. As its Explanatory Memorandum states, the draft Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (Consequential Amendments) (England and Wales) Order 2010, on which I shall focus my remarks, gives effect to the abolition of the Learning and Skills Council, as foreshadowed by the Act. The LSC was indeed a bureaucratic and inefficient organisation, but its replacement with no less than three new quangos—the YPLA, the SFA and now the NAS—does not, as we repeatedly said during the passage of the Bill, give us cause to expect a great rolling back of that bureaucracy. We set out during the debates on the Bill how we would have preferred this to be done, and I shall not dwell on that today, save to say that our proposals would have led to a much more effective and streamlined system. However, I have questions on four areas of the order. First, the Government claimed in their impact assessments during the passage of the Bill that their proposal to replace the LSC with the new quangos would be cost-neutral. Can the Minister therefore update us with the latest estimates in that regard? Is she still confident that the measure is cost-neutral? If so, does that remain the case when the additional burden falling on local authorities under the Bill is taken into account? Secondly, I notice in the final sentence of section 7 of the Explanatory Memorandum the statement: ""This instrument provides for amendments to primary legislation, not already covered by the Act"." Can the Minister kindly confirm to the Committee that such changes are none the less authorised by a catch-all section in the Act allowing consequential changes or is there something more that we should know about? Thirdly—this relates to Part 2 of Schedule 1—we are concerned to ensure that the sixth-form colleges to which the Minister referred retain their autonomy and independence, that they can specialise and achieve excellence in specific subjects and that they continue to attract people from a wider area than purely within their local authority’s area. What assurance can the Minister give me on this? Fourthly and finally, as she said, the order also makes changes to the Childcare Act 2006 to give effect to Section 199 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act. That section expands the powers of Ofsted to allow it to inspect children’s centres. Can the Minister assure the Committee that this exercise will be properly co-ordinated and is not just another layer of bureaucracy and that Ofsted is sufficiently expert to carry out this function?