Apprentices: Taxation

(asked on 27th October 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department makes of potential conflicts of interest arising from private companies transferring levy funds to public bodies.


Answered by
Alex Burghart Portrait
Alex Burghart
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This question was answered on 4th November 2021

Our reforms to apprenticeships have put employers in the driving seat, supporting them to choose and access high-quality training to meet their skills needs now and in the future.

We continue to make improvements to the levy transfer system to make it easier for large employers to make full use of their levy funds and support starts in their supply chain, sector or local area, and to support more employers, including small and mid-sized enterprises, to take on new apprentices.

Apprenticeship levy transfers can only be used to pay for apprenticeship training and assessment. The employer transferring their funds is not responsible for any aspect of the apprenticeship they are supporting, such as the apprentice’s wages or their employment. The employer receiving the transferred funds has full responsibility for ensuring that the apprenticeship is of high quality and meets our funding policy and conditions.

In addition to allowing levy-paying employers to specify an employer they wish to transfer funds to, our improvements to the levy transfers system now enable employers to advertise funding pledges. Employers can pledge transfer funds to support a specific type or level of apprenticeship, or an apprenticeship in a particular sector or region. It is for employers, both in the public and private sectors, to choose whether to apply for these funding pledges, and for the pledging employer to decide who to transfer their funds to.

We do not publish data on employers that have sent or received transfers of levy funds.

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