21 February 2017 
Julia Ascott, Employment Taxes Specialist
Information about the apprenticeship levy in Scotland can be found here, with a link to the Scottish government's response to the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy, published in December. The Scottish Government has committed to expanding the Modern Apprenticeship programme as growth continues towards 30,000 new apprenticeship starts each year by 2020, increasing the number of Graduate Level and Foundation Apprenticeships during 2017-18 and continuing with the implementation of the Youth Employment Strategy: Developing the Young Workforce. In Autumn 2017, the Scottish Government will also establish a new £10 million Workforce Development Fund to help employers train (and re-train) their workforce. Employers, through the Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board, will play a key role in shaping this fund.
The Welsh Government has recently updated this information on apprenticeships in Wales, and Business Wales has published this document covering apprenticeships and the apprenticeship levy for Wales, which includes a Q&A section, although at present this states that the 'Welsh Government is in the process of bringing forward new policy that will support the needs of employers in priority areas across Wales, regardless of their levy status… We have set up a team of advisors who are able to support employers in determining the impact of the levy and the training options available.'
The Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland consulted on the use of the Apprenticeship Levy in December. It doesn't appear that the outcome of this consultation has been published yet, but in advance of the consultation the Northern Ireland Finance Minister concluded that 'the Levy is of no benefit to our budget' and the Economy Minister called it 'bad news for Northern Ireland public and private sector organisations with a pay bill of over £3million' in a press release.
For all devolved regions, do also note that Grant Thornton has confirmed to us that if you are a non-English employer but you have employees in England, you can still register for the Digital Apprenticeship Service (now live) and there is scope to draw down some of your levy funds based on those employees residing in England. (Although the registered training providers will only be based in England).
