Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Western and Damian Hinds

Monday 8th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Damian Hinds (East Hampshire) (Con)]

9. What recent progress Skills England has made on its priorities.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Andrew Western)]

Skills England is playing a central role in delivering the Government’s plan for change and industrial strategy. It is the authoritative voice on skills needs and is informing the post-16 education and skills White Paper; supporting the delivery of sector skills packages in digital, AI, engineering, construction and defence; and informing decision making through the labour market evidence group’s work on migration.

[Damian Hinds]

It really is not ideal to have the body responsible for upholding standards in qualifications inside a Department that will be judged on how many people it gets through to passing those qualifications. It was not ideal when it was at the Department for Education; it is even less ideal now that it is at the Department for Work and Pensions. Will the Minister give a commitment that once Skills England is up and running, he will make it independent from Government, with a guaranteed voice for industry, and will he set that out in statute?