Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of apprentices employed by companies in which the director has been ineligible for covid-19-related financial support during the outbreak in (a) England, (b) the North West and (c) Wirral.

We do not have data on the number of apprentices employed by companies in which the director has been ineligible for financial support following the COVID-19 outbreak.

The government has introduced a wide range of support to help businesses of all sizes to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and to allow employers to furlough employees who have been unable to continue working, including apprentices, through the Job Retention Scheme.