Skills chiefs in court for Marples v DfE battle

The long-awaited showdown between former apprenticeships tycoon Peter Marples and the Department for Education is set to begin in the High Court next week – with a heavyweight cast of witnesses confirmed.

FE Week can reveal the 12 individuals due to give evidence in the high-profile trial include former bosses of the DfE’s then-Skills Funding Agency who have since become college leaders.

Peter Marples himself, co-founder of the now-defunct apprenticeship giant 3aaa, along with his nephew and ex-commercial director Lee Marples, will be among those taking the stand.

The pair and two other members of the family filed a £37 million claim two years ago. They argue “misfeasance in public office”, alleging the government scuppered the planned sale of their business to Trilantic Capital Partners (TLP) in 2016.  3aaa later collapsed in 2018. With interest added, a win could score the Marples’ over £60 million.

Also due to appear at the trial for the claimants is FE consultant Tony Allen, who was a senior manager at the Skills Funding Agency and account director from the “large contracts unit” responsible for 3aaa.

Andrew Palmer, a 3aaa employee who later ran England’s former largest training provider Learndirect until its skills funding contracts were terminated following an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted judgment in 2017, will give evidence, as will business and skills consultant Robert Kilpatrick.

Both Palmer’s and Kilpatrick’s testimonies will be in connection with a change in control at their respective former training providers – an issue that is at the centre of Marples’ claim.

Karim Khan, who was the corporate finance advisor responsible for the proposed transaction with TLP in 2016, will also give evidence for Marples, as will independent consultant Patrick Tucker, who will appear in respect to a government investigation in 2018 that led to 3aaa’s contract termination and referral to the police. Tucker worked with Marples at former training giant Carter & Carter in the 2000s.

The defenders

From the government side, the witness list features key figures from the then-Skills Funding Agency, including former chief executive Peter Lauener, ex top skills civil servants Keith Smith and Kirsty Evans, as well as investigators David Smales and Keith Hunter – all believed to have been involved in oversight and intervention decisions for 3aaa.

Lauener went on to chair college group NCG until 2023, and still chairs the Student Loans Company and Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) – both of which are non-departmental public bodies of the DfE. Smith is now CEO of Harrow, Richmond & Uxbridge Colleges (HRUC) and Evans is an executive principal at CITB.

Smales and Hunter still work in the DfE.

The case centres on the Marples family’s allegation that the DfE acted maliciously and irrationally when it said the SFA was “not able to agree to this change in ownership” amid the planned sale to TLP, adding that there would be a “risk that a change of control will prejudice delivery of our contracts both now and in the future”.

But the DfE has robustly denied any wrongdoing. In its defence, the department described the lawsuit as “fundamentally flawed”, maintaining that the decision was “based principally on a concern that the business plan put forward by the prospective purchaser (TLP) was based on unrealistic expectations as to future growth that were incompatible with impending changes in the funding environment, such that the pursuit by a new buyer of that level of growth would undermine the stability of the company and jeopardise the stable provision of services”.

Peter Marples has dismissed these claims as “specious” and said he intends to expose a pattern of “targeted malice” and “hostile” behaviour at the heart of the SFA’s handling of the case.

Marples has changed his KC during the course of the case, first filed in December 2022, with Adam Solomon now his lead barrister. The DfE will be defended by James Segan KC.

The trial, expected to last several weeks, will scrutinise high-level correspondence, whistleblower reports and audit findings from 3aaa’s final years – with the outcome likely to have a wider impact on the FE and skills sector.

You can download and read the full claim from Marples here, the DfE’s defence here, and Marples’ reply to the defence here.

FE Week will provide coverage from court as the trial unfolds.