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Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I shall do my best to give the noble Lord some comfort and I will await inspiration, should that come too. Ofqual will be a risk-based regulator, which will intervene only where it judges it necessary to do so to achieve its objectives. If Ofqual is confident that a recognised awarding body can be trusted to develop qualifications without them being checked individually, it can regulate on that basis. Therefore, qualifications run by those awarding bodies would not need to be individually checked by Ofqual. It will then rely on its ongoing monitoring to ensure that standards are up to scratch, which is a major change, of which I believe that the noble Lord is aware, from the current regime under which every qualification must be checked individually. It will go from an individual qualification check to an organisational check, which is why we are saying that it will be more light touch. However, Ofqual still has the discretion to insist on accreditation for a qualification if it decides that that is necessary. If an accreditation requirement is imposed, it means that, for example, a new qualification has to be checked or accredited before it can be awarded. This is a crucial power for Ofqual to impose extra quality control when this is needed to protect standards. For example, Ofqual could require that all A-levels are subject to the accreditation requirement, given the detailed requirements that A-levels have to meet. It could also require that all IT qualifications from "Fictional Award Body Limited" are subject to the accreditation requirement—perhaps because it had picked up concerns about the body’s IT qualifications or just because it was a new market. This clause provides for Ofqual to decide when a qualification needs to be accredited. It also builds in consultation requirements, procedures that Ofqual must follow, before it can insist on accreditation. It is a necessary part of a necessary power. I hope that with that explanation, the noble Lord will be satisfied.