Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much and what proportion of funding for apprenticeships was allocated to SMEs in (a) 2015, (b) 2016 and (c) 2017.

The apprenticeship levy came into force on 6 April 2017, requiring all employers with an annual pay bill of £3 million or more to pay 0.5% of their pay bill to invest in apprenticeship training.

Prior to this, all funding allocations were made directly to training providers with no distinction being made as to the size of the employer they subsequently worked with.

We are therefore unable to provide a breakdown of funding allocated to small and medium employers (SMEs) in the period requested.