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<p>The balance that levy payers see in their apprenticeship service accounts is distinct
from the department’s ring-fenced apprenticeships budget. The balance in employers’
accounts is based on their total levy contributions and how many of their employees
live in England. The department also tops up these funds by 10% after this English
portion has been calculated.</p><p>Levy-paying employers can use the funds in their
accounts to place orders for the training and assessment of their apprentices. The
department then pays the relevant providers and end-point assessment organisations
directly from its ring-fenced apprenticeships budget. An amount equal to the value
of this provider payment is also deducted from the levy payer’s account balance.</p><p>The
department’s ring-fenced apprenticeship budget is set in advance by Her Majesty’s
Treasury to fund apprenticeships in England only. The expenditure on various parts
of the apprenticeship programme is calculated based on the cash payments made from
this ring-fenced budget.</p><p>It should be noted that aggregated information on spending
by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and the department for 2017-18 is
held by the ESFA and included here, but information for 2018-19 will be published
in the audited annual reports and accounts later this year. Annual data on levy collected
in 2018-19 will be published by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.</p><p>In 2017-18,
spending on apprentices employed with levy payers, and who started training after
the levy was introduced, was £268 million.</p><p>In making employers’ levy contributions
available as funds in their apprenticeship service accounts, the government applies
a 10-per-cent top-up to these contributions. However, the balances in these accounts
are distinct from the department’s ring-fenced budget for apprenticeships. Where employers
are using some or all of this top-up to fund new apprenticeships, this spend is reflected
in the answer to (A) above.</p><p>£189 million was spent on training for apprentices
who started on or after 1 May 2017 with employers who do not pay the levy. In 2017/18,
£1,065 million was spent on ongoing costs of training apprentices who started before
the levy was introduced in May 2017.</p><p>Of the £457 million spent on new starts
in 2017-18 (£268 million on levy payers and £189 million on non-levy payers), £38
million was spent on English and Maths teaching. £72 million was spent on additional
provider payments and employer payments for apprentices aged 16 to 18 and apprentices
aged up to 24 years old who have either an education, health and care plan or who
have been in local authority care. £27 million was spent on other smaller elements
of funding policy, such as learning support.</p><p> </p>
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