Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 25 July (HL9666), how they assess the suitability for Education and Skills Funding Agency contracts for the training of apprentices of organisations which subcontract all or part of such training.

The procurement of contracts for the delivery of non-levy apprenticeship training was conducted in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Contracts were awarded on the basis of an Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) assessment of information supplied by providers against a defined set of criteria set out in the invitation to tender.

The ESFA, through its funding rules, requires awarded organisations to directly deliver some of the apprenticeship training associated with the apprenticeship programme of each employer they are working with. The volume of training that the awarded organisation delivers must have some substance and not be a token amount.