Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of the proposals in the Construction Industry Training Board's report Vision 2020 – The Future CITB moves forward on the (a) quality and (b) availability of training for the construction industry.

We published a review of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) last autumn which makes a number of recommendations to improve the performance of the CITB, and it is now embarking on a reform programme, which has the support of the industry. Central to this reform is a refocusing of CITB that will see it concentrate on its core mission of working with industry to ensure improved access to high quality construction training provision in order to meet the industry’s skills needs in both the short and long term.

We understand that delivery of these reforms will be significant challenge, and CITB will need to consider what changes to their operational model are appropriate. It is important that due consultation takes place regarding sites and people affected by these decisions and we know that CITB are consulting with their employees, employee representatives, and local authorities and MPs on the changes required to deliver their stretching reforms.