# Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, Section ZA11: Standards


(1) The Secretary of State must publish standards in relation to England for such occupations as the Secretary of State considers appropriate.
(2) Each standard must—
(a) describe the occupation to which it relates;
(b) set out the outcomes that persons seeking to achieve the standard are expected to attain in order to do so.
(3) Each standard must be prepared by a group of persons and approved by the Secretary of State, subject to subsection (3A).
(3A) The Secretary of State may prepare a standard if satisfied that it would be more appropriate for the standard to be prepared by the Secretary of State than by a group of persons.
(4) Where a standard is prepared by a group of persons, the group must be approved by the Secretary of State.
(5) The Secretary of State may provide advice or assistance to a group of persons in connection with the preparation of a standard.
(6) The Secretary of State may convene a group of persons to prepare a standard for an occupation if satisfied that—
(a) there is a need for a standard for that occupation, and
(b) no group will prepare the standard unless one is convened to do so.
(7) The Secretary of State must publish—
(a) information about matters that the Secretary of State takes into account when deciding whether or not to approve standards for the purposes of subsection (3);
(aa) information about matters that the Secretary of State takes into account in deciding whether it would be more appropriate for a standard to be prepared by the Secretary of State than by a group of persons for the purposes of subsection (3A);
(b) information about matters that the Secretary of State takes into account when deciding whether or not to approve groups of persons for the purposes of subsection (4).
(8) When making a decision of the kind mentioned in subsection (7)(a) or (b) in a particular case, the Secretary of State may also take into account such other matters as the Secretary of State considers appropriate in the case in question.
(9) Information published under subsection (7) may be revised or replaced, and the Secretary of State must publish under that subsection any revised or replacement information.
(10) Where a standard is published, the Secretary of State must publish, with the information published under section ZA10(5) in relation to the occupation, information indicating that there is a standard for the occupation.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2009/22/section/ZA11 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/apprenticeships-skills-children-and-learning-act-2009/section-ZA11
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.