Member

I think everybody in this House wants Skills England to succeed. As with so many matters we debate, we all broadly want the same end goal. Amendment 6 is what I would call a breathing space amendment to make that success more likely. It would reinstate the one year that their noble lordships put into the Bill as it went through the other place, meaning that Skills England would be operational for a year before it had to absorb IfATE’s functions. The hon. Member for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire went through some of the reasons why. Absorbing IfATE’s functions is an enormous undertaking. I think the noble Lord Blunkett estimated that close to 200 people would come into the organisation. In his words from that debate, which we have already heard, IfATE could