Welsh Government accused of cherry-picking data to claim 100,000 apprenticeship target met
The interim chair of the UK Statistics Authority has written to First Minister Eluned Morgan saying a Welsh Government claim to have delivered 100,000 apprenticeships in this Senedd term “is not supported by the rigorous measure” and “could be perceived as cherry-picking the data.”
The letter, from Penny Young, raises concerns about a Welsh Government press release issued on 9 February 2026 and a statement made at First Minister’s questions on 24 February. Both claimed Welsh Labour had met its target of 100,000 apprenticeship starts over four years.
According to figures published by Medr, Wales’s Commission for Tertiary Education and Research, there were 92,800 apprenticeship starts since the fourth quarter of 2020/21 under the rigorous measure, which excludes apprentices who withdraw within the first eight weeks or transfer out of their programme. When all starts are counted under an alternative measure, the total reaches 101,760.
Ms Young’s letter states that the rigorous measure “has been used historically to report on progress, including in annual reporting during the current Senedd term” and was also the measure used before the target was reduced from 125,000 to 100,000 in June 2024.
“The press release and statement during First Minister’s questions were not clear that they were based on the alternative measure that includes all apprentices,” Ms Young wrote.
The letter was raised at the Senedd’s final plenary sitting before dissolution ahead of the May 2026 election by Luke Fletcher MS (Plaid Cymru), who pressed culture minister Jack Sargeant MS (Labour, Alyn and Deeside) three times to acknowledge a misstep.
Mr Sargeant declined on each occasion.
“There are two sets of data when it comes to apprenticeships being delivered by the Welsh Government and Medr,” Mr Sargeant told the Senedd. “We’ve published that for a long, long time. Both sets are robust data, and the data of 100,000 being achieved accurately reflects the programme for government commitment.”
Mr Fletcher said the government had consistently used the rigorous measure to benchmark progress across the Senedd term before switching when it announced the target had been reached.
“By shifting the goalposts at this last minute, just before an election, you have undermined trust in the Government’s data. That’s what was set out also in the letter sent by the Office for Statistics Regulation. It’s not just me saying it; it is them saying it as well.”
When Mr Fletcher offered the minister a further opportunity to correct the record, Mr Sargeant said: “I’m not going to change my answer to the question, because that is the answer to the question.”
Mr Sargeant confirmed he had received the letter and said both measures went “through the same statistical assurances.” He told the Senedd he had received separate correspondence from the apprenticeship sector the previous evening thanking the government for its leadership.
He ended his final response by pivoting away from the data dispute: “I’m not taking lessons off Plaid Cymru on trust. They let trust down yesterday. They voted against the Hillsborough law.”
Mr Sargeant, who cited his own background as an apprentice, said the programme represented an “incredibly proud achievement” and that Wales had delivered more than 200,000 apprenticeship starts across the past decade.
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