Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many apprentices each department has accepted as part of the Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme; and how many such apprenticeships were taken up by (a) women and (b) men in each year since that scheme started.

The pilot cohort of 100 Civil Service Fast Track Apprentices began their apprenticeships in September 2013. Eight Government Departments across England are participating in the pilot over a two year period. The table below shows the number of Fast Track Apprentices who took up post in each Department in September 2013.

209 apprentices are due to take up in September 2014, on the second cohort of the scheme. The number of Fast Track Apprentices due to join in each of these Departments and Agencies is given in the same table below.

Information on the number of women and men on the scheme is available based on the initial offers made – in July 2013 for the pilot cohort and May 2014 for the second cohort.

The following numbers were those originally offered a place on the pilot Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme, in July 2013.

(a) 43 women

(b) 55 men

(c) 2 did not declare their gender

Since May 2014, 209 roles have been offered on the second cohort of the Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme, which will start this September.

(a) 91 women

(b) 109 men

(c) 9 did not declare their gender