Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the combined salary bill of hon. members and Members of the House of Lords being in excess of the threshold for payment of the apprenticeship levy, if she will take steps to facilitate parliamentarians in contributing to and accessing funding for apprenticeships both in Parliament and in their parliamentary constituencies; and if she will make a statement.

Criterion defining which organisations will pay the levy is published on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeship-levy-how-it-will-work Organisations will first declare that they will pay the levy in May 2017.

As stated in the reply of 30 March to my Hon. Friend’s PQ 69076, both levy and non-levy paying employers can access funding towards the cost of an apprentice’s training and assessment. Levy paying employers will have funds available to them through the apprenticeship service and receive a 10% Government top up every month. Non-levy paying employers will contribute 10% towards the cost of training with the Government paying 90%.

As individual employers, Hon. Members and members of the House of Lords will be able to check their eligibility for funding the training of apprentices they hire. The Apprenticeship Funding Rules are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sfa-funding-rules-2016-to-2017