Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to increase the number of qualified lift engineers in the UK.

The Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper set out reforms to the skills system to ensure skills provision is aligned to the needs of the Industrial Strategy and supports people to train in sectors which support growth and meet priority skills needs.

The government has launched an engineering skills package which will provide £182 million over three years to support engineering skills in England, working with Skills England to determine how this can increase the pipeline of skills such as those needed for lift engineers.

We are also launching Technical Excellence Colleges to address shortages in engineering, which is critical to the skills needed in priority sectors.

Skills England supports occupational standards specialising in the installation, maintenance and repair of lifts, escalators and related systems. It also has a range of generic standards at different levels covering technologies and occupations that are relevant to employers working on those systems. It will continue to work with employers to ensure that content is relevant and up to date.