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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to reduce the gap in apprenticeship completion rates for people who are Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic.

We want to increase the quantity and quality of all apprenticeships, including for people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.

Our far-reaching reforms are improving the quality of all apprenticeships. We have insisted that they must all be paid jobs with substantial training, develop transferable skills and have a minimum 12 months’ duration. The Institute for Apprenticeships is being created to ensure the quality of apprenticeship standards in England.

Information on apprenticeship completion rates is published in the National Achievement Rate Tables: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/sfa-national-achievement-rates-tables-2014-to-2015