Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many apprenticeships have been created in her Department in each region in each of the last five years; and how many participants in those apprenticeships subsequently secured a job within the Civil Service.

In light of the Government’s manifesto commitment to achieve three million new apprenticeship starts in England by the end of the Parliament, the Cabinet Office will be centrally collecting data on apprenticeships to allow the Civil Service to report on its contribution towards the national target.

DCMS employed four apprenticeships in the 2014 calendar year, five in 2015 and three in 2016 to date. All of these apprentices were recruited on permanent Civil Service contracts. Data on apprentices was separately recorded from 2014.