Household Debt: Key Economic Indicators
Household debt: Data on the latest household debt statistics, including net lending, mortgage interest rates and insolvencies.

This note provides a summary of apprenticeships and skills policy and developments in England. It covers policy developments from 2017 onwards, including the introduction of the apprenticeship levy and other funding changes in May 2017.
Apprenticeships policy in England (530 KB , PDF)
Skills and training are devolved policy areas. This briefing covers apprenticeships in England, and covers policy developments from 2015 onwards.
Apprenticeships in England are available to anyone over the age of 16 living in England, and take between one and six years to complete. They are paid jobs which incorporate on and off the job training. Apprentices have the same rights as other employees and are entitled to be paid at least the apprentice rate of the national minimum wage. As of September 2022 over 800 different apprenticeships were available.
Over 700,000 apprentices participated in an apprenticeship in the 2020-2021 academic year.
Apprenticeships can be studied at different qualification levels, which each have an equivalent educational level:
At the end of a successful apprenticeship, the apprentice will achieve the equivalent educational level.
There are various minimum standards in place to ensure that funding will be provided for an apprenticeship:
Apprenticeship standards outline what an apprentice will be doing in a particular apprenticeship, and the skills that are required of them. Standards are developed by “trailblazer” groups that represent groups of employers and sector organisations, and will always include an end-point assessment.
Standards have replaced apprenticeship frameworks which have been progressively phased out since the 2017/18 academic year. Frameworks were developed by sector bodies and were primarily qualification-focused.
On 6 April 2017 the new apprenticeship levy came into effect with all UK employers with a pay bill of over £3 million per year paying the levy. The levy is set at 0.5% of the value of the employer’s pay bill, minus an apprenticeship levy allowance of £15,000 per financial year. The levy is paid into an apprenticeship service account, and funds in this account have to be spent on apprenticeship training and assessment.
Apprenticeship levy funds are used to pay for the training and assessment for employers paying the levy. Employers are able to transfer unused apprenticeship funds to non-levy paying employers. Since April 2019, employers have been able to transfer a maximum amount of 25% of their annual funds, and can make as many transfers as they wish.
Apprenticeships that have been started since June 2022 are generally funded in the following way:
After the introduction of the apprenticeships levy in 2017 there was a large fall in the number of apprenticeship starts, leading to criticism of the levy and other reforms that have been put in place. The Government has responded by stating that the quality of apprenticeships has improved since the reforms have been put in place.
As part of the 2022 Spring Statement, the (then) Chancellor committed to ‘examining’ the tax system, which included the operation of the apprenticeship levy. However, the Government has said that there will not be a formal review of the apprenticeship levy, and that instead it would look to make “further improvements” in response to concerns that have been raised by employers.
Apprenticeships policy in England (530 KB , PDF)
Household debt: Data on the latest household debt statistics, including net lending, mortgage interest rates and insolvencies.
Latest statistics showing changes in UK productivity and comparisons of UK productivity with other G7 countries.
This briefing explains why some university staff are striking over pensions, pay, and working conditions in February and March 2023, and what students can do if their studies are disrupted.