Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether Government funding has been allocated to increase the number of apprenticeships in the food, farming and agri-tech sector.

The Government’s commitment to treble the number of apprenticeships in food, farming and agri-tech is a key part of the Government’s overall programme to increase apprenticeships, which is led and funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The future funding of apprenticeships will, as with all Government expenditure be considered as part of the next Spending Review. Our priority is to grow the number of apprenticeships and we will fund accordingly.