David Blunkett’s tart announcement of a fundamental review of the agency’s future has led to dire predictions that it will be wound up - a sacrificial lamb for the current recruitment crisis.

Oddly, while the agency itself is affecting a blase air, it seems the worried men are elsewhere. The Diary hears from impeccable sources that among them is Dr Nick Tate at the TTA’s fellow quango, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

Nick was so alarmed by the prospect of the dismembering of the agency, he rang Michael Barber at the DFEE’s standards and effectiveness unit for reassurance that the QCA wasn’t going to be next in line. After all, the whispering circus that has undermined the TTA has hardly ignored his lot.

Fortunately, he received good news - of sorts. “Don’t worry,” Michael reassured him. “You’re just not important enough to the Government.”

Sleep easy, Nick.