Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relationship between the fall in the Apprenticeship Levy fee and the fall in the number of new apprenticeship starts; and whether they plan to reintroduce the £3,000 amount for all age groups.

The government’s apprentice incentive payments of up to £3,000 have helped employers of all sizes to build back from the COVID-19 pandemic more successfully, supporting over 195,000 new apprentices into work between 1 August 2020 and 31 January 2022, 77% of which were apprentices under the age of 25.

The apprenticeship incentive payments were introduced as part of the government’s Plan for Jobs in 2020, in recognition of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on business, and to support employers to recruit the right people and develop the skills they needed to recover and grow. The department has no current plan to reintroduce the incentive scheme, but continues to support employers with the cost of apprenticeship training.

The government is increasing funding for apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year to support more employers to offer new apprenticeship opportunities. As part of this, the department continues to provide £1,000 payments to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19 or from the ages of 19 to 24, who have an education, health and care plan, or have been in care.

The government contributes 95% of the cost of apprenticeship training for small-to-medium sized enterprises who do not pay the apprenticeship levy for up to 10 apprentices a year, and funds 100% of the training costs for the smallest employers when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18.

The department continues to monitor the level of apprenticeship starts and completions and publishes this information at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships. Between August and November 2022, there have been 155,900 apprenticeship starts.