Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to devolve funding and responsibility for apprenticeships for 16–19-year-olds to Metro Mayors.

The department’s reforms have created an employer-led apprenticeship system. Employers across England are now empowered to design the apprenticeship standards which meet their skills needs and to choose the apprenticeship training they need from a range of high-quality providers.

In doing so, both employers who pay the apprenticeship levy and those who do not can directly access government funding for apprenticeships. As such, local employers are in control of an apprenticeship system which enables them to address local skills needs. As a result, the department currently has no plans to devolve any funding or responsibility for apprenticeships to mayors or other local partners.

The department has worked closely with employers and mayoral combined authorities to help them better address local skills needs through apprenticeships. We have improved the apprenticeship levy transfer system, so it is easier for large employers to transfer their unused funds to smaller employers, building on the work of the West Midlands combined authority.

In September 2021, the department introduced a new online service to enable large employers to pledge funds available for transfer, allowing a much wider range of businesses to browse and apply for available funds. Employers using the service can choose to pledge funds for a specific geographic area. To date, employers including Amazon UK, DPD, and HomeServe have pledged to transfer almost £9 million.

The government is increasing overall apprenticeship funding to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year. This funding will support apprenticeships in employers of all sizes, including small employers who do not pay the apprenticeship levy and for whom the government will continue to pay 95% of training costs.