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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to paragraphs 1.140 and 1.142 of the Budget 2016, whether it is his policy that apprentices over the age of 25 will be subject to the national living wage or the apprentice rate of the national minimum wage.

Apprentices under the age of 19 or in the first year of their apprenticeship are entitled to at least the National Minimum Wage apprentice rate – currently set at £3.30 per hour.

All other apprentices are entitled to at least the minimum wage rate appropriate for their age, which for over-25s is the National Living Wage rate of £7.20 per hour.