Industry Training Boards Triennial Review

(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)

Thursday 17th December 2015 Written Statements

[The Minister for Skills (Nick Boles)]

The commencement of the combined triennial review of the three Industry Training Boards (Construction ITB, Engineering Construction ITB and Film ITB) was announced in Parliament on 1 July 2013. The purpose of this statement is to update the House on the completion and outcome of the review.

Although each ITB operates in a different industry, a combined review of all three bodies was undertaken owing to the similarity of responsibilities and their common objective to raise skills in the sector via a training levy.

The triennial review took place under the coalition Government but it was not possible to publish the report prior to the 2015 general election.

Following the election, on 8 July 2015 the new Government announced the introduction of a new levy on large UK employers to fund post-16 apprenticeships. The CITB and ECITB will consult employers in their respective industries before the introduction of the apprenticeship levy on whether or not they should continue to pay the sector skills levies in their current form. The review concluded that given these skills funding policy changes, it would be premature for the review to make recommendations on the future of the CITB and ECITB; the right time for this will be once the future levy arrangements for the sectors are clearer.

There is currently no statutory training levy on the film production sector; instead the Film Industry Training Board (FITB) oversees the delivery of a voluntary training levy, the “skills investment fund”, which is administered by creative skillset. The FITB also provides a valuable advisory function to creative skillset on the skills and training needs of the sector. The triennial review concluded that as the FITB does not operate a statutory training levy it is not necessary for it to be a non-departmental public body (NDPB) in relation to the levy powers and functions detailed in the Industry Training Act. It therefore recommends that unless there is a clear policy commitment and timetable from Government to implement a statutory film sector levy, the FITB need not remain as a NDPB. In this case, the valuable advisory function and the voluntary training levy could continue without NDPB status.

The review also examined the governance arrangements for the CITB, ECITB and FITB, in line with guidance on good corporate governance set out by the Cabinet Office. The review made specific recommendations that will improve the performance of the ITBs against their existing missions, and the ITBs have already started to act on these recommendations.

The full report of the triennial review can be found on the gov.uk website and copies have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

[HCWS407]