Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of establishing a ring-fenced fund for regulatory compliance apprenticeships.

Regulatory services are not the responsibility of a single department. While no DLUHC funding is currently available we will keep this under review and maintain a dialogue with other departments and local government regarding this matter.

My Department is committed to addressing capacity and capability issues affecting regulatory services in general, and the regulation of the construction products sector in particular. The Government has supported the sector through the National Regulator for Construction Products within the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) to oversee a stronger regulatory regime. Up to £10 million has been set aside for this work in 2021/22. My Department remains committed to making sure that OPSS have the necessary resources at its disposal, and we expect that OPSS will continue to work with and support Local Authority Trading Standards teams to implement the regime.