Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of recent trends in apprenticeship start-ups.

There were 2.4 million apprenticeship starts over the previous parliament, and 499,900 apprenticeship starts in the 2014/15 academic year - an increase of 13.5 per cent on 2013/14.

The number of under-19 apprenticeships starts in 2014/15 was 125,900, this was up 5.1 percent on 2013/14. There were 19,800 starts on Higher and Degree Apprenticeships in 2014/15, an increase of 115 per cent on 2013/14 (9,200 starts).

We are taking action to support and encourage the growth of apprenticeships to meet our commitment to reaching 3 million starts by 2020.