Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of Government-standard qualifying apprenticeship schemes available when the Apprenticeship Levy comes into force in spring 2017.

Employer-led reforms to apprenticeships are replacing existing complex frameworks with short, simple, accessible apprenticeship standards designed by employers according to their skills needs. The existing apprenticeship frameworks will close as the new standards are developed and become widely used, and in March 2016 we began the phased withdrawal of SASE frameworks.

We envisage a migration from apprenticeship frameworks to standards over the course of the Parliament, with as much of this as possible to take place by 2017/18.

So far, 246 new apprenticeships standards have been published. A further 176 new standards are in development, and we expect more to come forward before the Apprenticeship Levy is implemented in spring 2017.