The House of Commons has not yet hit the public-sector apprenticeship target, it has been revealed.

Public-sector bodies have a legal duty, established in the 2016 Enterprise Act, to “have regard” to the target of having at least 2.3 per cent of their workforce comprised of apprentices. Official guidance specifies that “public sector bodies with 250 or more staff in England have a target to employ an average of at least 2.3 per cent of their staff as new apprentice starts over the period of 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2021”.

According to the Department for Education, the target has been calculated to ensure that the public sector delivers its “fair share” of the 3 million apprenticeship starts the government has committed to by 2020.

Chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon, yesterday urged the Speaker of the House of Commons and Tom Brake, representing the House of Commons Commission, to “set an example to our nation and not just coast along in terms of employment of apprentices and make sure we meet our 2.3 per cent public target”.

“I urge you, Mr Speaker, and the senior clerk to rocket-boost apprenticeships so that we have hundreds of apprentices in the Houses of Parliament,” he said.

Read more: Long read: Why won’t MPs hire apprentices?

More views: Halfon: ‘Tories must guarantee every young person an apprenticeship’

Background: Exclusive: £33m of Whitehall apprenticeship levy pot unspent

‘Expanding the range’

Mr Brake said the House intended to increase the number of apprentices from 14 to 38 by the end of May of this year. That would not hit the 2.3 per cent target, he admitted, but stressed that “the House intends to do [so] by 2021”.

Mr Brake also said that to increase the number of apprentices, the House service had taken “a number of steps”. “That includes expanding the range of apprenticeship programmes on offer from two to 14 since September 2018 and upskilling existing employees by enrolling them on apprenticeship programmes. The expansion of apprenticeship programmes will continue. Ongoing engagement and planning for apprenticeship roles across all House teams will ensure more quality apprenticeships are created.”

Apprenticeship levy funding

Last year, Tes contacted the parliamentary offices of all 650 MPs, asking whether they currently employed an apprentice. Of the 121 that replied - around a fifth of the total - just nine (7 per cent) had an apprentice working for them.

And last September, Tes revealed more than two-thirds of Whitehall’s apprenticeship levy pot remained untouched, more than a year after it was introduced. At that time, three departments - the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government; the Department for Exiting the European Union; and UK Export Finance - had yet to spend any of their apprenticeship levy funds.

The Department for Education (DfE) - the government department responsible for the apprenticeship levy - had only spent 4 per cent of its levy pot.