To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools paying the apprenticeship levy have taken on apprentices since that levy was introduced.

The apprenticeship levy was introduced in April 2017. Information on the number of schools that have paid the apprenticeship levy is not available in the format requested as data on the apprenticeship levy is reported to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs via the Pay As You Earn scheme rather than by organisation.

​As reported in the statistics publication “Public sector apprenticeships in England: 2017 to 2018” (available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/public-sector-apprenticeships-in-england-2017-to-2018), there were approximately 6,300 apprenticeship starts in schools between May 2017 and March 2018. Many of these apprenticeship starts will be funded by the apprenticeship levy directly or via local government. Around half of the 6,300 starts were in local authority maintained schools