Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much investment is predicted to be stimulated from the apprenticeship levy in each of the next five years.

The Apprenticeship Levy came into effect on 6 April 2017 and will enable us to fund the step change needed to achieve 3 million quality apprenticeship starts in England by 2020. Delivering better quality apprenticeships will ensure that more people from all backgrounds are enabled to gain the skills and training they need to build successful careers.

The apprenticeships programme is demand led, and employers will recruit apprentices that are appropriate for their business needs. The new funding model will support training for individuals from disadvantaged areas, by providing a cash payment to providers for training apprentices who live in the top 27% of deprived areas. This will be in place for a year, and we will continue to review our approach to funding apprenticeships for the most disadvantaged.

We are investing in skills across the whole of England: by 2019-20 our annual spending on apprenticeships in England will reach £2.45bn – double in cash terms what is was in 2010-11. Apprenticeships budget from 2016-2020 can be found on page 8 at: Information on apprenticeship levy.

Apprenticeships are a devolved policy. The Devolved Administrations will each receive their fair share of the apprenticeship levy increasing to £460 million by 2019-20. It will be for them to decide how funds raised from the levy should be used in their administrations.