---

Apprenticeship Levy

Answer

The government introduced the apprenticeship levy to incentivise larger businesses to develop and invest in their own apprenticeship programmes whilst ensuring the availability of funding for smaller employers wanting to offer apprenticeships. Through the levy, the government is increasing investment in the apprenticeships system in England to £2.7 billion in the 2024/25 financial year to support employers of all sizes build their workforces. As the apprenticeships levy is UK wide, income from the levy also supports the Devolved Administrations to invest in their skills programmes.

In England, employers can use their levy contributions to fund apprenticeships in their own business or transfer their funds to other businesses in their supply chain, sector or region. Funds that levy payers do not draw on is used to fund apprenticeships in small and medium sized businesses. Levy payers are not expected to use all funds available to them, though they are able to do so.

The table below shows the number of registered employer apprenticeship service accounts that utilised all their funds available, as well as the number that did not, in each financial year since the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in 2017.

FY	Number of registered employer accounts on the apprenticeship service that utilised all funds available	Number of registered employer accounts on the apprenticeship service that did not utilise all their funds available and therefore had expired funds
2017/18	5650	7570
2018/19	5030	10660
2019/20	4930	11960
2020/21	5210	12230
2021/22	6790	11920

Please note that:

• Funds remain available for 24 months before they begin to expire on a rolling, month-by-month basis; as employers began to pay the apprenticeship levy in April 2017, unused levy funds began to expire in May 2019.
• The sum of expiry figures for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years are not specified as funds do not expire for 24 months.
• Expiry figures for the 2017/2018 financial year will appear lower than future years due to the oldest funds in an employers’ accounts being utilised first.
• Expiry figures for the 2021/22 financial year only include data to October and therefore does not represent a full year.

The funds available to levy-paying employers through their apprenticeship service accounts are not the same as the apprenticeships budget which funds apprenticeships for employers of all sizes. On average, 98% of the apprenticeships budget has been spent in the last two financial years. Spend for the 2023/24 financial year, and for future years, will be set out in the department’s annual report and accounts which will be published when available. The apprenticeships budget beyond 2024/25 will be determined at the next Spending Review.

With regard to allowing levy-paying employers to spend funds on non-apprenticeship training schemes and courses, I refer my right hon. Friend, the Member for Witham to the answer I gave on 10 November 2023 to Question 614.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

3792

Session

2023-24

Related items

Apprentices: Taxation
Friday, 10 November 2023
Written questions
House of Commons

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

Apprenticeship levy

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk