Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much of the apprenticeship budget has been spent by (a) apprenticeship levy payers and (b) non-levy payers in each year since 2017.

The UK government, via His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, collects an apprenticeship levy of 0.5% on total payroll from businesses across the UK with an annual payroll expenditure of more than £3 million. The amount raised by the apprenticeship levy is available in this publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.

From this, His Majesty’s Treasury sets an English apprenticeships budget for the department, and the devolved administrations receive a share of the funding calculated using the Barnett formula.

The apprenticeships budget in England is used to fund the training and assessment of new apprenticeship starts for all employers of all sizes, both those who pay the levy and those who do not. The budget is also used to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training and any additional payments made to employers, providers and apprentices. Apprenticeships are employer led, and the department does not allocate a specific percentage of the budget to either levy paying or non-levy paying employers.

The table below shows the total apprenticeship budget and spend in England in the last five financial years, with spend broken down by levy payers and non-levy payers. It also includes the budget for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. In addition, the table reflects the spend on apprenticeships that started prior to the introduction of the levy, and the department’s spend on the operation of the wider apprenticeship system, such as the cost of running digital services, marketing and communications campaigns.