Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to announce the amount of the total apprenticeship levy underspend for the financial year 2020-21; and if he will make a statement.

The funds in apprenticeship service accounts are available for levy paying employers to use for 24 months before they begin to expire on a rolling, month by month basis. Employers began to pay the apprenticeship levy in April 2017 and unused levy funds began to expire in May 2019.

The attached table shows the figures for monthly levy expiry from May 2019 to date.

The levy is an important part of our reforms to apprenticeships which are vital for driving our economic recovery. It supports employers of all sizes to invest in high quality apprenticeship training. In the 2021-22 financial year, funding available for investment in apprenticeships in England will remain around £2.5 billion – double that spent in the 2010-11 financial year in cash terms.

We do not anticipate that all employers who pay the levy will need or want to use all the funds available to them, but they are able to if they wish. As well as funding new apprenticeships in levy paying employers, income from the levy is used to fund new apprenticeships in employers that do not pay the levy, as well as existing apprentices that started in previous years.

The funds available to levy paying employers through their apprenticeship service accounts are not the same as the Department for Education’s annual apprenticeships budget. The annual apprenticeship budget is set by Her Majesty's Treasury, and although closely linked, is distinct from the total levy income collected by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

Details of apprenticeship budget spend for the 2020-21 financial year will be included in the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s Annual Report and Accounts which is due to be published in November 2021.