Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to reform the apprenticeship levy.

The apprenticeship levy is an important part of the government’s reforms to create a high-quality, employer-led apprenticeships system, and it supports employers of all sizes to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training. The government does not currently have any plans to review the apprenticeship levy.

The department is increasing investment in apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by 2024/25 and have a range of work underway to support employers to use our high-quality apprenticeships to the build skilled workforces they need.

There are over 670 employer-designed apprenticeship standards currently available across all levels and sectors and we are encouraging flexible training models, like flexi-job and accelerated apprenticeships, so that employers can train their apprentices in the way that works best for them. We have also improved the levy transfer system to support levy paying employers to make fuller use of their levy funds.

We have removed the limit to the number of apprentices that small and medium-sized enterprises can take on and we continue to pay 95% of their apprenticeship training costs and 100% for the smallest employers when they take on younger apprentices, including those aged 16-to-18.

The department also wants to further accelerate the growth of higher and degree apprenticeships and encourage higher education providers to expand their existing offers or develop new ones. We are providing an additional £40 million over the next two years to support degree apprenticeship providers to expand and help more people access this provision, on top of our £8 million investment in 2022/23.