Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the equity of the decision to cease funding to the Union Learning Fund.

The government’s commitment to the Union Learning Fund has never been open-ended and the current funding is due to cease at the end of March 2021. We have always been clear any future funding would depend on the government’s Spending Review.

The decision considered the impact on Unionlearn and their activities and was taken in light of our expanded commitment to skills development through the National Skills Fund, and Lifetime Skills Guarantee. Overall we are investing much more in adult skills retraining, and doing so through a broad offer, rather than a small dedicated fund promoted through the union network.