Smith to amend IfATE bill after apprenticeship powers scrutiny

Transparency win for Lords questioning new powers for ministers to directly develop and approve standards and assessment plans

Transparency win for Lords questioning new powers for ministers to directly develop and approve standards and assessment plans

Government ministers will amend the IfATE abolition bill this week, bowing to scrutiny from the House of Lords.

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (transfer of functions, etc) Bill will reach report stage in the Lords on Wednesday before moving to the House of Commons.

Ministers have come under fire for replacing IfATE, a quasi-autonomous body, with Skills England, which will be an in-house agency within the Department for Education.

The bill also gives the secretary of state powers to bypass employers and directly approve apprenticeship standards and assessment plans.

During the bill’s committee stage, skills minister Jacqui Smith argued these powers would only be used by exception but was criticised because the bill does not detail what those exceptions are.

This week, Smith will amend the bill to commit the government to publish the “matters that will be taken into account” when deciding to use those powers.

During previous debates on the bill, Smith reiterated that the “default” position would remain that employers, or “groups of persons”, develop standards and assessment plans.

However for “emerging” or “rapidly developing occupations” it might be necessary for the secretary of state to sign those off so changes happen quickly.

“Scenarios in which it may be appropriate for the secretary of state to use this power to prepare a standard are those where using a group would be disproportionately onerous for employers or other stakeholders; unnecessary because only minor adjustment or revisions were required; or where it could create undue delays.”

Smith has another amendment which would require the government to publish a report detailing how powers it will subsume from IfATE have been used. That report must be published within six months of IfATE closing.

Conservative shadow education minister Baroness Barran will attempt to amend the bill so Skills England is established independently of DfE, however this is unlikely to pass.

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