Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria are used to determine how prime contractors for Employment and Skills Funding Agency funding are permitted to set their management fees.

The ESFA is currently undertaking work to develop expectations about the services that providers should offer to their subcontractors. A key priority for this is to increase the amount of funding that reaches front line delivery. Any changes will come into force in 2019. In the delivery of programmes to young people, the amount of funding retained by the directly funded institution must be proportionate to the costs and must be determined through due diligence and risk assessment processes.