2. What assessment has the Counsel General made of the impact of the apprenticeship levy on legal training in Wales? OQ59002

Thank you. Welsh Ministers have made it clear, since the time of its introduction, that the Welsh Government is not in favour of the UK apprenticeship levy. We've worked closely with the legal sector to introduce apprenticeships that will support growth and development.

I thank the Counsel General for that answer and, indeed, there has been progress, working with partners in the legal profession, with the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, with colleges and further education providers over the last few years to get to the point where we do now have foundation stage level 3 and advanced stage level 5 of the new CILEX professional qualification, the CPQ, but there is still a strong push from those out in the profession, particularly in solicitors, the Law Society amongst them, who believe that there needs also to be a level 7 solicitor apprenticeship programme in Wales. We still have the remaining problems with the apprenticeship levy and the fact that it's levied on Welsh companies, but we don’t have the full remit to use it in the way we'd want to in Wales. But I wonder: will he commit to work with those partner organisations to consider how this can be taken forward in due course?

Thank you. You've raised an important area, where Welsh Government has been looking at how it can support the development of the legal profession, those having access to it, and, ultimately, those being able to provide legal services within communities. The first thing to say about the apprenticeship levy, of course, is that it as a tax on employers, it was not one supported by us, and we get very little financial benefit as a consequence of it.

Coming back to, I think, the substance of your question, which is about legal education and training, as you say, last September, we introduced paralegal apprenticeships, which allow apprentices to gain Chartered Institute of Legal Executives qualifications, and the first cohort of those started in September 2022 at Coleg Sir Gâr in Carmarthen. As you say, we've extended it to level 3 and level 5, and we are looking at level 7; we are looking at the access to solicitor apprenticeships as well. That is slightly more complicated, because it raises issues in terms of what a lot of firms are already doing in terms of supporting and paying apprentices, and what we would really want to do is to ensure that anything that we might do would actually lead to better access for more people, more diverse access to that, and also result in people being able to provide legal services in communities, rather than just replacing expenditure that is already taking place. What I can say, though, is that we have published a specification for an assessment of the need for solicitor apprenticeships in Wales, which closed to tenders yesterday. It's aim is to establish the extent to which a solicitor degree apprenticeship may help meet the training and the development needs of the legal profession in Wales.