The amount of apprenticeship funding handed back to the Treasury shrunk to just £11 million last year, reigniting fears that the apprenticeship budget could go bust soon.
FE Week last month revealed that more than £2 billion of apprenticeship levy funding had been returned to the Treasury unspent in the four years after the levy’s launch in 2017, with £604 million alone in 2020/21.
In response to a written parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney, skills minister Robert Halfon this week provided figures for 2021/22 for the first time, which revealed that £11 million of the £2.4 billion ringfenced budget was unspent last year.
This is despite government data showing that starts in 2021/22 were 11 per cent down on 2018/19 – the year before the pandemic hit when a near-£500 million underspend was recorded.
