Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect on school budgets of the requirement to pay the apprenticeship levy.

The Department published a technical note in February on school costs, which included an estimate of the cost pressure on schools due to the introduction of the apprenticeship levy. This note can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-costs-technical-note. The Department estimated that over 16,000 schools (three-quarters of the total) would pay the apprenticeship levy.

Schools are encouraged to use funds in their apprenticeship service accounts to pay for the training and assessment costs of apprentices they employ. The Department expects schools to benefit at a similar level to the costs of the levy. The Government provides a 10% top up to employers’ apprenticeship service funds, so that it is possible to receive more funding than is paid by way of the levy. Local authorities are expected to work closely with schools contributing to the levy to ensure they can access funding for apprenticeship training.