Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much apprenticeship levy funding paid by businesses in the automotive sector has expired unused in each of the last three financial years.

There are widespread misconceptions that there is significant unspent levy funding available to spend. However, this is not the case. Over the last five financial years, 99% of the English growth and skills budget was spent.

Levy-paying employers in England can access funding through their Apprenticeship Service accounts, yet we do not record their industry or sector when they first register for an account. Therefore, we are unable to provide sector-specific data that shows the amount of levy funds entering employers’ accounts or the amount that has been spent or that has expired.

It should be noted that the UK wide apprenticeship levy is not legally hypothecated and, as such, revenues from the levy are paid into the Consolidated Fund and not directly allocated to apprenticeships.  Separately, the annual growth and skills (previously apprenticeship) budget for England is set at each spending review. The English growth and skills budget increased to a record breaking £3.3 billion in the 2026-27 financial year.

The funds in levy paying employers accounts are notional (reaching around £6.7 billion) and far exceed the total levy paid by employers annually and is more than double the annual growth and skills budget. If all levy paying employers spent all their notional levy funds, we would far exceed the available budget and there would be insufficient funding for non-levy payers, typically SMEs, which represent around 30% of apprenticeship spend.