Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much in total the NHS has contributed to the apprenticeship levy fund to date; and what proportion of that total has been spent on apprenticeships.

We are working closely with employers, Health Education England and other delivery partners to make sure that the National Health Service is supported to recruit apprentices, thus utilising their levy contributions, in a range of occupations. This is to ensure the NHS has a workforce that is reflective of the population it serves.

The apprenticeship levy is paid by NHS employers with a pay bill over £3 million. It is for each NHS employer to determine how to spend the funds available to them for apprenticeships. The Department for Education hold the official data on employer level spending. Individual NHS employers hold their own data on their levy spend. We do not collect this data centrally.