David Simpson
Main Page: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)Department Debates - View all David Simpson's debates with the Department for Education
(8 years, 6 months ago)
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David Simpson (Upper Bann) (DUP)
What more can the Government do to help haulage companies with the exorbitant fees of £3,500 that are charged to train for HGV licences?
Nick Boles
There is a convention, which we have stuck to for very good reasons, that we do not ask the taxpayer to pay for licences to practise a particular profession. We believe that doing so should be directly in the interests of both the employer and the employee who will benefit from having the licence. However, we are encouraging those companies to develop, and they are working on developing, an apprenticeship standard to include the whole of the rest of the training, which will of course receive substantial support from the taxpayer and from the apprenticeship levy.