(11 years, 5 months ago)
Lords ChamberI thank the noble Lord for raising this important issue. It is the Government’s intention to implement the recommendations of the Richard review, which will see through the apprentice programme. It sits very neatly alongside the success that we have seen over the past four years, with the private sector picking up and generating employment to compensate for the small number of losses in the public sector. A strong apprentice programme sits very nicely with that.
My Lords, will the Minister comment on whether the Government have fulfilled all their statutory obligations, in particular the Public Bodies Act 2011, in their spending review decisions?
My Lords, I am working on the assumption that we have fulfilled those, but I am sure somebody will tell me very quickly if we have not. It is not a stipulation I am familiar with.