To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many (a) apprenticeships and (b) advanced apprenticeship places there were in (i) his Department and (ii) the agencies for which he is responsible in the most recent year for which figures are available. (251974)

Government Skills will be preparing a table of Departments participating in the national apprenticeship partnership in 2008-09 and the number of apprentices on the programme.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change has been formed by bringing together work previously covered by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. As a new Department it is not yet participating in the partnership. It will in due course develop its policy in relation to apprenticeships.