Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many training places in construction skills boot camps have been delivered since April 2025.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Skills Bootcamp starts by financial year, including breakdowns by sector, are published here. Releases - Skills bootcamps starts, completions and outcomes - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK
The latest published figures show there were 60,410 starts in the 2023-24 financial year, of which 6,820 were in the construction, planning and built environment sector.
Starts, completions and outcomes data for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 financial years are scheduled to be published in winter 2026/27 and winter 2027/28 respectively.
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much of the £600 million construction skills package announced on 23 March 2025 has been spent to date.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
For financial year 2025-26, publicly available information shows the government spent £78 million of its £80 million budget.
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many industry placements have been organized by the Construction Industry Training Board since April 2025, and at what cost.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Employers and further education training providers are responsible for arranging and delivering industry placements, in line with policy and funding provided by the Department for Education.
The Government announced in March 2025 that it would provide £100 million to support over 40,000 construction industry placements each year for eligible Level 2 and Level 3 learners, as part of a wider package to train up to 60,000 additional construction workers by 2029.
The CITB does not organise industry placements and has therefore not incurred any associated costs. It is, however, supporting the Government's commitment to increase the impact of industry placements in construction, alongside a planned contribution of £32 million of funding. The details of this support are currently being developed, with delivery expected to commence in the 2027 financial year.
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many apprentices aged (1) 18 or under, (2) 19–24, and (3) 25 and over, were employed in 2025 by employers with an annual pay bill of (a) between £3 million and £3.25 million, and (b) over £3.25 million.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All UK employers with an annual pay bill above £3 million pay the levy. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is responsible for collecting the levy on behalf of the government. HMRC publishes data on UK apprenticeship levy receipts at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk. In England, levy paying employers access Government funding for apprenticeships through their employer accounts, which they must set up.
Currently, employers who exhaust the funding in their levy accounts, which includes a 10% Government top-up, can continue to enrol apprentices, with government funding 95% of their training costs for a small contribution of 5%. From August 2026, government will fund 75% of the training and assessment costs once funds are exhausted.
We understand, from our engagement with employers and other stakeholders, that employers with smaller levy balances may be more affected by this change and we will carefully monitor the impact of this change as we implement it.
The department does not publish apprenticeship starts by size of employer pay bill, including starts by size of employer pay bill broken down by age.
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many apprenticeship levy-paying employers have an annual pay bill of between £3 million and £3.25 million; whether they assessed the impact of the increase in the employer co-investment rate for starters from 1 August 2026 on recruitment of apprentices by such employers; and if so, what plans they have to publish that assessment.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All UK employers with an annual pay bill above £3 million pay the levy. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is responsible for collecting the levy on behalf of the government. HMRC publishes data on UK apprenticeship levy receipts at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk. In England, levy paying employers access Government funding for apprenticeships through their employer accounts, which they must set up.
Currently, employers who exhaust the funding in their levy accounts, which includes a 10% Government top-up, can continue to enrol apprentices, with government funding 95% of their training costs for a small contribution of 5%. From August 2026, government will fund 75% of the training and assessment costs once funds are exhausted.
We understand, from our engagement with employers and other stakeholders, that employers with smaller levy balances may be more affected by this change and we will carefully monitor the impact of this change as we implement it.
The department does not publish apprenticeship starts by size of employer pay bill, including starts by size of employer pay bill broken down by age.
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people currently work for Skills England.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of May 2026, Skills England employs 252 people.
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the maximum apprenticeship funding available in (1) 2019, (2) 2022, and (3) 2025, for the apprenticeship standards for (a) chartered managers, (b) human resource managers, and (c) senior leaders; and what was the average duration of funding for each of those standards.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The typical duration from apprenticeship start date to apprenticeship gateway and the maximum funding available for standards (a) to (c) are in the below table. This information is published at Apprenticeship search / Skills England.
Apprenticeship standard | Maximum funding in 2019 | Maximum funding in 2022 | Maximum funding in 2025 | Typical duration |
Chartered manager | £22,000 | £22,000 | £22,000 | 48 months |
HR Support | £4,500 | £4,500 | £4,500 | 18 Months |
Senior leader | £18,000 | £14,000 | £14,000 | 24 months |
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of apprenticeship levy-paying employers spent more than 50 per cent of the funds in their apprenticeship accounts in 2025.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In 2025, 37% of levy payers spent more than 50 per cent of the funds in their apprenticeship service accounts.
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many private sector publicly funded providers of apprenticeship training had learner apprentices enrolled in (1) 2022–23, (2) 2023–24, and (3) 2024–25; how many of providers of that type who had participating learners in 2018–19 had participating learners in 2024–25; and how many providers of that type who had participating apprentice learners in 2021–22 did so in 2024–25.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of private sector publicly funded providers for 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 was:
Academic year | Number of providers |
2022/23 | 1031 |
2023/24 | 966 |
2024/25 | 910 |
The number of private sector publicly funded providers with learners participating in both 2018/19 and 2024/25 was 540.
The number of private sector publicly funded providers with learners participating in both 2021/22 and 2024/25 was 762.
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the average duration to apprenticeship gateway and what was the maximum apprenticeship funding available in (1) 2015, (2) 2022, and (3) 2025 for the apprenticeship standards of (a) engineering operative, (b) maintenance and operations engineering technician, (c) engineering technician, (d) hairdressing professional, (e) advanced and creative hairdressing professional, (f) creative, hair and fashion director, and (g) hair, skin and scalp specialist.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Apprenticeship starts for individual apprenticeship standards are published in the Apprenticeships accredited official statistics publication:
Starts | ||||||
|
| 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies | Maintenance and Operations Engineering Technician (ST0154) | 1,080 | 1,510 | 1,900 | 2,050 | 2,220 |
Engineering Operative (ST0537) | 1,090 | 1,460 | 1,500 | 1,800 | 1,850 | |
Engineering Technician (ST0457) | 5,040 | 5,660 | 6,030 | 5,490 | 4,120 | |
Retail and Commercial Enterprise | Advanced and Creative Hair Professional (ST0214) | 810 | 1,220 | 1,040 | 1,120 | 870 |
Hairdressing Professional (ST0213) | 5,650 | 5,770 | 4,630 | 5,230 | 4,050 | |
| Starts | ||||
2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | ||
Total | Maintenance and Operations Engineering Technician | 30 | 910 | 1,020 | 1,090 |
Engineering Operative | no data | no data | 140 | 480 | |
Engineering Technician | 600 | 3,080 | 4,310 | 4,770 | |
Advanced and Creative Hair Professional | no data | no data | no data | 30 | |
Hair Professional | 640 | 6,220 | 6,700 | 5,330 | |
Please note that there were no apprenticeship starts on these standards prior to 2016/17. The Hairdressing Professional (ST0213) standard was previously named Hair Professional. No standards exist for (f) and (g).
The typical duration from apprenticeship start date to apprenticeship gateway and the maximum funding available for standards (a) to (e) are in the below table. This information is published at Apprenticeship search / Skills England.
Standard Name | Typical Duration (months) | Maximum funding 2022 | Maximum funding 2025 |
Advanced and creative hair professional | 12 | £5,000 | £5,000 |
Engineering operative | 12 | £6,000 | £10,000 |
Engineering technician | 42 | £26,000 | £26,000 |
Hairdressing professional | 24 | £7,000 | £11,000 |
Maintenance and operations engineering technician | 36 | £26,000 | £26,000 |
Please note that as the listed standards were not approved until after 2015, the maximum funding available for this year is not available.