To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the likely underspend from apprenticeship levy payments when the first funding period expires in April 2019.
Answered on
6 June 2018
Between 6 May 2017, when the apprenticeship service went live, and the end of April 2018, levy paying employers drew down £207 million from their apprenticeship service accounts for new starts.
The Department for Education has a ring-fenced apprenticeship budget which has been set regardless of how much levy receipts are each year. This budget was set at £2.01 billion for the 2017-18 financial year. It is used to fund new apprenticeship starts in levy and non levy-paying employers and to cover the ongoing training costs of apprentices that are already in training.
As the apprenticeship programme is demand led, and employers can choose which apprenticeships they offer, at what level and when, actual spend to April 2019 is still unknown.
We will publish details on aggregate apprenticeship spending in our departmental end-of-year accounts as part of our normal financial reporting cycle.