Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of introducing a cap on the level of financial support available for each apprenticeship contract; and if she will make a statement.

The current invitation to tender for the delivery of apprenticeships to employers who don’t pay the levy has a maximum initial contract award of £5 million for each successful training provider applicant. This initial limit was put in place to ensure adequate coverage of geographic and sector areas as well as adequate capacity and capability to deliver at that level.

In total, 97% of providers who currently hold funding agreements with the Skills Funding Agency currently have contracts of lower than £5 million.