Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Transport on reform of the Apprenticeship Levy to support training needs in the road haulage sector.
Answered by Robert Halfon
This department continues to work closely with the Department for Transport and across government to ensure that the road haulage sector has access to the skills training that employers need. This engagement has led to important improvements to apprenticeships and skills bootcamps. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not met with my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Transport to discuss reform of the apprenticeship levy.
The apprenticeship levy has enabled the department to increase investment to a total of £2.7 billion by 2024/25, which will support apprenticeship starts across every sector, including road haulage. The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education regularly reviews the funding for apprenticeship standards. The department has recently increased funding for the heavy goods vehicle service and maintenance technician apprenticeship standard by 33% (from £15,000 to £20,000), the large goods vehicle apprenticeship standard by 14% (£7,000 to £8,000) and the motor vehicle service technician apprenticeship standard by 7% (£15,000 to £16,000). These increases are supporting providers deliver essential training across the sector.
In response to supply issues for driver training and testing in the transport sector, the department also introduced temporary arrangements through the apprenticeship system, so that more providers could deliver training and testing for the acquisition of a driving license.
Skills bootcamps are also providing opportunities for people to train as drivers, gain their licenses and launch new careers in road haulage sector. The department has invested up to £32 million to create up to 11,000 HGV driver training places, with further funding being allocated to support this training offer in the 2023/24 financial year.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a reduced apprenticeship levy contribution for companies which take on apprentices with SEND.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will consider the potential merits of using the apprenticeship levy to fund training in skill shortages identified by the Migration Advisory Committee.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government is supporting employers of all sizes and in all sectors, to use high-quality apprenticeships to build the skilled workforces they need, now and in the future.
Employers can access over 680 employer-designed apprenticeship standards, including in occupations which feature in the shortage occupation list, such as Level 2 Bricklayer, Level 3 Laboratory Technician, and Level 3 Lead Adult Care Worker.
The department is increasing investment in apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year and has removed the limit on the number of apprentices that small and medium-sized enterprises can recruit, supporting more employers of all sizes to grow their businesses with the skilled apprentices they need.
Employers can also continue to benefit from a range of other high-quality government funded skills programmes to recruit new talent or train current staff, including to help address skills shortages identified by the Migration Advisory Committee, such as through Skills Bootcamps in retrofitting.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will consider the potential merits of increasing the apprenticeship levy transfer ceiling to 35%.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department is supporting employers to make greater use of their levy and has improved the transfer system to make it easier to find other employers who wish to take on apprentices with transferred funds. Levy transfers are a great way for employers to transfer their funds to other employers in their supply chains, including small employers, flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and charities to help meet local or sector-specific needs.
Levy-paying employers have been able to transfer 25% of their annual funds since April 2019, when this was increased from 10%, and have been able to use an online service since 2021 to make the process easier.
Since the new service launched in September 2021, we have seen 418 employers, including ASDA, HomeServe and BT Group, pledge to transfer over £28 million to support apprenticeships in businesses of all sizes as of 9 June 2023.
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can also access funding directly from the apprenticeships budget. The department is working to remove unnecessary barriers, making it simpler and quicker for them to set up an apprenticeship service account, to access funding and to support them to take on their first apprentice. The department has also removed the limit of 10 apprentices a year that SMEs can take on, enabling them to take on as many skilled apprentices as they need.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make an estimate of the potential impact on (a) the apprenticeship budget and (b) apprenticeship starts of permitting levy-payers to spend (i) 25% and (ii) 50% of their apprenticeship levy accounts on non-apprenticeship training.
Answered by Robert Halfon
In the last two financial years, an average 98% of the English apprenticeships budget was spent. The apprenticeships budget in England is ring-fenced for apprenticeships only and is used to fund training and assessment for all employers, both those who pay the levy and those who do not. It is therefore important that the apprenticeships budget remains ring-fenced for apprenticeships to ensure continued affordability of the programme and to ensure that employers of all sizes, including small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that do not pay the levy, can continue to access high-quality apprenticeships training.
If employers were able to use 25% of their levy funds for non-apprenticeships training, the department estimates that this would create an additional cost of up to approximately £700 million per annum. Allowing employers to use up to 50% of their funds for non-apprenticeship training would increase this cost to up to £1.5 billion per annum. Without making additional funding available to support this flexible use of levy funds, the department estimates that this would require a significant reduction in new apprenticeship starts to approximately 140,000 per annum. This is around a 60% decrease on the 350,000 apprenticeship starts reported for the 2021/22 academic year.
The apprenticeship levy was introduced to increase employer investment in high-quality apprenticeships training, and with the intention that large employers’ levy contributions would fund access to apprenticeships for all employers. The Government wants to support SMEs across England to offer more apprenticeship opportunities and so in April we removed the restriction on the number of apprentices SMEs can recruit. The department continues to pay for 95% of the apprentice training costs for SMEs, rising to 100% for the smallest employers recruiting apprentices under the age of 19.
Employers can already choose to spend their levy funds on any of the 680 plus apprenticeship standards available, or to transfer 25% of their funds to support apprenticeships in other businesses. They can also benefit from a range of other government-funded skills programmes, including skills bootcamps, higher technical qualifications and T Level industry placements.
Aug. 16 2023
Source Page: Apply to the APAR as an apprenticeship training providerFound: Supporting apprentices Forecasting starts Off the job training Where apprentices will be trained
Mentions:
1: Lord O'Neill of Gatley (XB - Life peer) More than half the other countries have considerably higher taxation levels than we do. - Speech Link
2: Lord Northbrook (Con - Excepted Hereditary) The Conservatives are meant to be the party of lower taxation—something we need to remember. - Speech Link
3: Lord Londesborough (XB - Excepted Hereditary) Chancellor is stumping up a derisory £50 million over the next two years to increase the number of apprentices - Speech Link
4: Lord Horam (Con - Life peer) In particular there was making investment fully expensed against corporation taxation. - Speech Link
5: Lord Eatwell (Lab - Life peer) In other words, the Minister is arguing a case for cuts in taxation. - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Mark Garnier (Con - Wyre Forest) It has had its problems, but none the less, it pays through taxation for an awful lot of hospitals, police - Speech Link
2: Chris Clarkson (Con - Heywood and Middleton) Apprentices in my patch are talking about working in this area. - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: None I suspect that public opinion is broadly in favour of increasing taxation. - Speech Link
2: None Some carbon taxation will be regressive, but alcohol taxation and tobacco taxation are regressive, and - Speech Link
3: None Bringing in that kind of thing through direct taxation can have risks. - Speech Link
4: Gibson, Kenneth (SNP - Cunninghame North) What about the situation with apprentices perhaps not being valued as much and, therefore, not enough - Speech Link
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the accessibility of the apprenticeship levy for (a) construction and (b) trade businesses.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The apprenticeship levy enables large employers to access up to 110% of their levy contributions for high-quality apprenticeships, which can equip them with the skills they need to develop and grow their workforce. It also enables the government to fund 95% of the cost of apprenticeships in small employers who do not pay the levy.
We are increasing apprenticeship funding in England to £2.7 billion by 2024/25, which will support even more people to access apprenticeships, and we have introduced flexi-job apprenticeships, making it easier for apprentices to complete their training across different projects.
We are working across government and in partnership with the construction industry, through the Construction Skills Delivery Group, to ensure apprenticeships meet the needs of employers in the sector. In 2021/22 there were over 26,000 apprenticeships starts in Construction, Planning and the Built Environment sector, an increase of 31% from 2020/21.
Employers have developed 97 standards in the Construction and the Built Environment sector including Level 2 bricklayer, Level 3 craft carpentry and joinery and the Level 6 chartered surveyor degree apprenticeships. A new version of the bricklayer standard also went live in August 2023, with funding increased by 40%, and we have increased funding for the scaffolder apprenticeship by over 20%.
We have made it easier for SMEs in construction to recruit the next generation of talent by removing the limit on the number of apprentices they can take on. We also meet 100% of the cost for the smallest employers (fewer than 50 staff) when they take on young apprentices and have simplified our levy transfer system so SMEs can more easily benefit from transferred funds.