Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the value of unused apprenticeship levy funding returned to the Government by (a) Oxfordshire County Council and (b) employers in each of the last five years.

The funds in apprenticeship service accounts are available for levy-paying employers to use for 24 months before they begin to expire on a rolling, month-by-month basis. Employers began to pay the apprenticeship levy in April 2017 and levy funds began to expire in May 2019.

Due to taxpayer confidentiality, we are unable to publish the amount that individual employers have contributed through the apprenticeship levy or the amount of funds that have been spent or have expired.

For all employers in England, the total value of expired levy funds between May 2019 and April 2020 was £847 million. From May 2020 to February 2021, the latest period for which figures are available, the total value of expired levy funds is £1,039 million.

Employers are able to use all of the funds in their apprenticeship service accounts to support apprenticeships in their own or others’ businesses. Levy paying employers can transfer up to 25% of the annual value of funds in their apprenticeship service accounts to other employers. We are simplifying the transfers process, enabling employers to make strategic decisions over where their levy funds are spent. From August 2021, employers will be able to pledge funds for transfer, and we will introduce a new national online matching service, making it quicker and simpler for levy-payers to find employers that share their business priorities to transfer funds to.

We do not anticipate that all employers who pay the levy will need or want to use all the funds available to them, but they are able to do so if they wish. Funds raised by the levy are used to support the whole apprenticeship system. Employers’ unused funds are available to support apprenticeships in smaller employers who do not pay the levy and to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices who began training prior to the introduction of the levy.

We are again making available £2.5 billion for investment in apprenticeships in the 2021-22 financial year, which is double that spent in 2010-11.