Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2017 to Question 68199, on further education: expenditure, what proportion of that total expenditure was spent by the (a) Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and (b) her Department in the 2015-16 financial year.

In 2015-16 financial year, the spend for post-16 education and skills was:

• £5,918 million for 16 to 19 year olds in colleges, school sixth forms, and commercial and charitable providers funded by the Department for Education (DfE);
• £730 million for 16 to 18 Apprenticeships funded by DfE;
• £2,409 million for Further Education for those aged 19 and above (including adult apprenticeships) funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

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

Out of a total spend of £9,057million, 73% was spent by DfE and 27% by BIS.

As the 19+ Further Education and Apprenticeships funding within BIS went through a machinery of government transfer to DfE at the Supplementary Estimate 2016-17, from a government budgeting/accounting perspective this spend will in future show as having all been spent by DfE.