Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy not to impose the apprenticeship levy on small schools; and for what reasons large academies are not required to pay that levy.

The levy is being introduced to fund a step change in apprenticeship numbers and quality. All employers in England, including schools, can use the funds raised by the levy for apprenticeship training and assessment, getting valuable skills for their organisations. Levying all employer paybills over £3m, including those in the education sector, is considered to be the simplest, fairest and most objective way of doing this.

For academies, the trust is the employer and single academies or multi-academy trusts with a paybill of over £3m will pay the apprenticeship levy. For foundation and voluntary aided schools, the governing body is the employer. For community and voluntary controlled schools, the local authority is the employer.

This means that, for community and voluntary controlled schools, the local authority will pay the levy, rather than the school. The local authority may pass these costs on to the school but they will also be able to pass on the benefits - giving the school access to digital funds to pay for apprenticeship training.