Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will discuss with her counterparts in the devolved institutions ways to ensure that young people across the UK receive a similar level of assistance in accessing apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships policy is a devolved matter and it is for the devolved administrations (DAs) of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to determine how they manage their own schemes. The DAs will have their own arrangements for supporting young people to access apprenticeships.

Officials from the DAs and my Department will continue to consider any implications of reforms to apprenticeships in England for their own apprenticeship programmes.