May I thank you for your statement this afternoon, Minister? I welcome the announcement that there is to be an employability programme and the general principle of creating a more accessible, more flexible programme, with the support of the employment advice service in this case, of course, but the statement raises a number of questions because, essentially, it announces that there is to be an employability programme and an employment advice service. Perhaps you can mention who will develop the employability programme. I assume it would be the Government, but it would be good to know, because, if you are going to make a statement or an announcement by January, there isn’t a great deal of time to include various stakeholders in that discussion. When do you anticipate that the programme will become active? Perhaps you could tell us a little about the resources and the costs of implementation. And also, the employment advice service that you mentioned, what sort of capacity will that have? How many people do you anticipate they will be working with on an annual basis? Perhaps you could tell us a little about the cost that you anticipate and from what budget the funding for that will come from.

You mentioned that you want to commission nationally, manage regionally, and deliver locally. Now, I assume—I may be wrong—that you anticipate that the regional skills partnerships will have a role to play. So, what consideration have you given, in considering that model, to perhaps devolving more responsibility to those partnerships, certainly in terms of budgets and so on in relation to this area? I’d be pleased to hear to what extent there is more scope perhaps to do that.

You also mentioned, of course, all-age provision. I assume that we are talking about post-16. Perhaps you could tell us whether you have considered extending that to post-14, because you will be as aware as I am that many people have reached the point where they have made decisions by the time that they reach that age. Perhaps we are catching them too late, or failing to catch them at all perhaps, because it’s too late before they face that kind of situation. The statement does mention that the approach would be all-age and all-encompassing and that you are looking at an approach that is integrated and incentivised.

You mentioned being modernised and efficient, but I don’t see an emphasis on ensuring that the service is effective. I do think that that is an important consideration, and perhaps you could tell us more about how you intent to evaluate the effectiveness of the provision. How will you measure success under these new arrangements that you have set out this afternoon? Much of the success of what you hope to achieve, from what I see from the statement, will depend to some extent on the UK Government and perhaps the record in the past period doesn’t give one much confidence when we look at the way that the apprenticeship levy, for example, has been dealt with. Perhaps, as I am talking about that particular levy, you could tell us how you anticipate that that could strengthen or complement this provision that you have announced today. We heard earlier about the announcement made yesterday on the level of funding that will be allocated by the UK Government. I would suggest that we shouldn’t assume that that is new funding, because it’s been lost from elsewhere. We will lose out elsewhere. But it will be interesting to hear how you see the contribution of that levy playing out in this context.

When we do talk of this area, one crucially important area is the element of marketing and promoting the value of the acquisition of skills for people who aren’t in employment, and even those who are in employment—perhaps more so. I would have thought that we would need a strong marketing campaign to back up programmes such as these. Perhaps you could tell us a little more—because the DWP and local authorities and the provision in terms of health and so on will be generating some demand, but perhaps more specifically for those people in employment—about how and where do we ensure that we sell this to employers, to young people, to parents and all those various groups out there that we want to see taking advantage of the provision. Thank you.