Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with the devolved administrations on the operation of the apprenticeship levy in each of those regions.

Officials from my Department are in regular discussions with their counterparts in the devolved administrations to consider the implications of the apprenticeship levy on their own apprenticeship programmes and for cross-border employers. As skills policy is devolved it is for the devolved administrations to decide how they will fund apprenticeships in their nations.

The UK government has agreed funding with the devolved administrations, and this was announced in November 2016: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-government-agrees-apprenticeship-levy-funding-deal-with-devolved-administrations.