Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many apprenticeship starts in England were funded by the NHS in (a) 2017-18 and (b) 2018-19 at each apprenticeship level.

The Department does not centrally collect the information requested.

Public sector organisations in scope to meet the public sector apprentice target provide data annually to the Department for Education on numbers of apprentice starts. Data provided by the Department for Education show the National Health Service organisations in scope had 13,800 apprentice starts in 2017/18.

Published statistics which cover public sector apprenticeships in England in the first year of the target, 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/public-sector-apprenticeships-in-england-2017-to-2018

Data is not available on 2018/19 starts until later this year.

Any NHS organisations not in scope for the apprenticeship target will not be included in the return, though they may have apprentices training within their organisation.