Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will provide a full breakdown of what the £3.2 billion raised by the apprenticeship levy in 2021–22, as reported by HMRC, has been spent on.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
The Apprenticeship Levy is a key part of the Government’s reforms to the apprenticeship system to enable employers of all sizes to make a long-term, sustainable and high-quality investment in training.
The Apprenticeship Levy is charged at a rate of 0.5% of an employer’s annual pay bill. An annual Apprenticeship Levy allowance of £15,000 means that only those employers with an annual pay bill of over £3 million will have to pay and report the levy.
In England, the Department for Education is allocated an annual apprenticeships budget which is agreed at Spending Review. This budget is used to fund training and assessment for new apprenticeship starts in all employers – levy and non-levy paying employers alike – across England, and to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training and any additional payments made to employers and providers. This means that in England, levy payers’ unspent funds are used to support additional costs and apprenticeships in smaller employers.
In the 2021-22 financial year the total spend on apprenticeships in England was £2,455 million against the budget of £2,466 million, meaning that 99.6% of the apprenticeships budget was spent. Any underspends are retained in line with standard practice as per the Consolidated Budgeting Guidance.
Apprenticeship policy and spending is devolved meaning the devolved administrations receive funding through the Barnett formula. While the Barnett formula is applied to changes in departmental funding, rather than to budgets for specific programmes, this essentially accounts for how the residual levy revenues are used. It is for the devolved administrations to allocate their funding in devolved areas as they see fit, including investing in their skills programmes.
If the employer is levy-paying, with operations based wholly or partly in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, they will need to engage with the relevant funding authorities for funding apprenticeships located there. Authorities in each of the UK nations manage their own apprenticeship programmes, including how funding is spent on apprenticeship training.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many companies in England paid the apprenticeship levy in 2021–22.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
There are an estimated 27,300 businesses (rounded to the nearest 100) with headquarters registered in England that paid the Apprenticeship Levy in tax year 2021 to 2022.
Please note that this estimate is based on where employer headquarters are registered, and therefore does not necessarily reflect where the liabilities are accrued. This does not include businesses with headquarters registered in Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland, who have a presence and pay employees in England. Meanwhile, this includes businesses with headquarters registered in England, who have a presence and pay employees in Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland, but it assumes that the total pay bill is within England.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord O’Neill of Gatley on 1 February (HL5090 and HL5091), whether they will now provide the direct link to that information, and why they did not provide that link in those answers.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
The relevant information is available at “Box A5.6D : money transmission services ranked in order of choice” in the Treasury guidance on “Managing Public Money”.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what postage type was used by government departments, including their agencies and public bodies, to issue cheques in (1) 2015, (2) 2014, (3) 2013, and (4) 2012.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
The information requested is not held centrally. The Government Banking Service is a provider of banking services across Government, but each Government Department is responsible for setting its own policy in regards to making payments by cheque. Further details are set out in the publication, “Managing Public Money” which is available on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many cheques were issued by each government department, including their agencies and public bodies, in (1) 2015, (2) 2014, (3) 2013, and (4) 2012, and what was the value of those cheques.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
The information requested is not held centrally. The Government Banking Service is a provider of banking services across Government, but each Government Department is responsible for setting its own policy in regards to making payments by cheque. Further details are set out in the publication, “Managing Public Money” which is available on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much was spent by HM Treasury in the last financial year on (1) postage and printed stationery, (2) fax machines and supplies, and (3) email services.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
In the 2014/15 financial year the Treasury spent £16,696 on postal charges. Details of spending on printed stationery are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Details on the spend relating to fax machines is not available.
Email services in the Treasury form part of a wider shared ICT provision and costs are not separately identifiable.
Asked by: Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of correspondence sent by HM Treasury in the last financial year was sent by (1) post, (2) fax, and (3) email.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
HM Treasury does not hold this information.