Conclusions and recommendations
1. We
agree with the Permanent Secretary that the Department has 'logic
in its structure', with significant potential benefits to the
further and higher education sector. Given the economic climate,
the main challenge for the Department will be to strike the right
balance between the short-term immediate priorities of helping
businesses through the recession and the longer term priorities
of ensuring that the higher and further education sectors are
able both to flourish and to equip the future workforce with the
skills that businesses need. (Paragraph 12)
2. We note the Permanent
Secretary's assurances that the new Department has been created
with a minimum of disruption. However, any departmental restructuring
has an impact, in the short term, on policy implementation, as
resources are diverted to manage that change. The Permanent Secretary
acknowledged that "stability" was one of the main risks
facing the Department. Given the degree of departmental change
experienced in the Department and its predecessor Departments
in recent years, we believe that a sustained period of stability
in the Department's structure would be in the interests of all
policy areas in its remit. (Paragraph 21)
3. Furthermore, we
are encouraged by the fact that the initial costs of the merger
will be met by existing budgets. (Paragraph 22)
4. Managing the Department's
large number of delivery partners represents a significant risk.
We welcome the Department's review of its relationships with its
delivery partners. We look forward to receiving early sight of
the recommendations arising out of that review and details of
the Department's plans for their implementation. (Paragraph 26)
5. We look forward
to considering the Department's new DSOs and indicators when they
are published in the Department's Autumn Performance Report. (Paragraph
30)
6. We commend the
(former BERR) Department for being one of the first to produce
its resource accounts together with its Departmental Report in
2008-09 (BERR's Annual Report and Accounts 2008-09). We look forward
to the new Department producing a combined Departmental Report
with resource accounts for 2009-10. (Paragraph 33)
7. We welcome the
fact that the Department has now lowered the limit of the Automotive
Assistance Scheme from £5 million to £1 million, in
line with the Committee's recommendation. (Paragraph 36)
8. While we are aware
of the apparent success of the scrappage scheme, and while we
appreciate the fact that negotiations to agree loans and loan
guarantees with car companies can be complex and time-consuming,
the absence of a single loan or loan guarantee from a scheme which
was heralded as "a further £2.3 billion package of loan
guarantees" is disappointing. The Government needs to expedite
its negotiations, and prove to us and the automotive industry
that the Automotive Assistance Programme can provide tangible
benefits to the industry. (Paragraph 40)
| 
