Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussion he has had with (a) training providers, (b) Sector Skills Councils and (c) further education representative organisations on the decision to the terminate the Union Learning Fund.

The government’s commitment to the Union Learning Fund has never been open-ended and the current funding was due to cease in April 2021. We have made no commitment to funding beyond this date and have always been clear any future funding would depend on the government’s Spending Review. The decision not to renew funding after April 2021 has been communicated at this stage in the Spending Review process in order to give a greater period of notice.

As part of our expanded commitment to skills development through the National Skills Fund and Lifetime Skills Guarantee I can confirm all the money will be invested in skills and retraining that will be fully accessible to everyone.