Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he plans to take to increase the number of apprenticeship starts in London; and if he will make a statement.

We are supporting employers in London and across England to help them plan their future apprenticeship programmes including account management of over 1,000 of the largest levy-paying employers. We have recently announced initial awards totalling around £485 million to hundreds of providers across the country to provide apprenticeship training to non-levy paying employers.

A new phase of our communications campaign started on 26 January 2018, to encourage employers to offer high quality apprenticeship opportunities and to promote these to potential apprentices.

There have been over 1.2 million apprenticeship starts since May 2015 and we aim to achieve three million apprenticeship starts in England by 2020. Apprenticeships are open to individuals and employers across the country, and we are investing in the whole of England by doubling funding for apprenticeships to £2.45 billion by 2019-20 – twice what was spent in 2010-11 – and giving employers more autonomy to design training that meets their needs.