Over £2 billion of apprenticeship funding has been returned to the Treasury since the launch of the levy, FE Week can reveal after obtaining figures that finally show the true extent of apprenticeship underspend.
The clawback equates to 23 per cent of the Department for Education’s total ring-fenced apprenticeship budget between 2017 and 2021.
Ministers have repeatedly refused to reveal exactly how much of the annual apprenticeship budget has gone unspent after the whole system, including non-levy paying employers, has been funded. MPs, including former DfE adviser Richard Holden just yesterday, have even had requests for this information turned down.
FE Week, in partnership with the new Apprenticeships Data Insights service also operated by our publisher LSECT Ltd, has now forced the DfE to reveal the figures for the first time through a Freedom of Information request.
