Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills spent on post-16 education and skills in the last year for which data is available.

The latest figures we have available are for 2015-16 and in that year both the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills funded post-16 education and training. The breakdown is as follows:

• Funding for 16 to 19 year olds in colleges, school sixth forms, and commercial and charitable providers was £5,918 million;
• Apprenticeships funding for 16-18 year olds was £730 million;
• Further Education funding for those aged 19 and above (including adult apprenticeships) was £2,409 million.

These figures show funding for participation only and exclude financial support.

Furthermore, by 2020, funding available to support adult FE participation is planned to be higher than at any time in England’s history. We have also protected the base rate of funding at £4,000 per student for all types of 16-19 providers until 2020. And as announced in the Budget, there will subsequently be over £500 million per year of additional funding for 16-19 to deliver the new Technical routes once they are fully rolled out.