Apprentices: Taxation

(asked on 18th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what amount of previously unspent apprenticeship levy funds has been allocated by levy-paying employers to (a) small and (b) medium sized companies as part of the apprenticeship levy transfer scheme.


Answered by
Alex Burghart Portrait
Alex Burghart
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This question was answered on 21st January 2022

We are committed to supporting more employers to use apprenticeships to develop the skilled workforces they need, and to supporting more people, from all backgrounds, to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer.

Large employers are able to choose how to spend their levy funds to best meet their skills needs, and since April 2018 have been able to transfer funds to other employers. We continue to make improvements to the levy transfer system to make it easier for large employers to make full use of their levy funds and support starts in their supply chain, sector, or local area, and to support more employers, including small and medium sized enterprises, to take on new apprentices.

Latest published figures on transfers can be found within the ‘Apprenticeship Service and monthly transparency data’ section of the Apprenticeships and Traineeships statistical release. As of 8 December 2021, there have been 2,860 apprenticeships recorded on the apprenticeship service that have started, or are due to start, during the 2021-22 academic year funded by a transfer of levy funds. Of these, 62% (1,760) were transfers to non-levy-paying organisations.

In September 2021, we launched a new online service to allow levy-paying employers to advertise funding pledges, and to enable other businesses to browse and apply for these funds. So far in the 2021-22 financial year, over 100 employers have pledged £7 million of levy funds for transfer through the new online service.

We do not anticipate that all employers who pay the levy will need or want to use all the funds available to them, but they are able to if they wish. As well as funding new apprenticeships in levy-paying employers, income from the levy is used to fund new apprenticeships in employers that do not pay the levy, as well as existing apprentices that started in previous years. In the 2020/21 academic year, 116,110 apprenticeship starts were in non-levy paying employers.

In the 2021-22 financial year, funding available for investment in apprenticeships in England is £2.5 billion and this will grow to £2.7 billion by 2024-25 financial year.

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