Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to increase apprenticeship enrolment among people from lower-income backgrounds.

We want to ensure that high quality apprenticeships are as accessible as possible to all people from all backgrounds.

Apprenticeships already disproportionately benefit people from lower socio-economic backgrounds with apprentices more likely to come from disadvantaged backgrounds - compared to the population as a whole, 25 per cent of apprentices live in the most disadvantaged fifth of areas.

Our apprenticeship funding policy supports individuals from disadvantaged areas by providing a cash payment to training providers when they train apprentices living in the top 27% of deprived areas.