Eluned Morgan rapped by stats regulator over apprenticeships claim

Martin Shipton

First Minister Eluned Morgan has been rapped over the knuckles by the official statistics regulator for making a tendentious claim that the Welsh Government has delivered more than 100,000 apprenticeships in the current Senedd term.

In a letter to Baroness Morgan, Penny Young, the Interim Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, which oversees the Office for Statistics Regulation, stated: “I am writing to you regarding the use of apprenticeships statistics in a press release on 9 February 2026 titled ‘Over 100,000 apprenticeships delivered in Wales this Senedd term’ and in the Senedd during First Minister’s Questions on 24 February 2026.

“In both cases the claim was made that Welsh Labour has achieved its target of having delivered 100,000 apprenticeships in the last four years. “There are two measures of apprenticeship starts published by Medr, Wales’s Commission for Tertiary Education and Research.

“The well established ‘rigorous’ measure excludes apprentices who withdraw in the first eight weeks, and those who transfer out of their programme to other learning. The alternative measure records all apprentices who have started an apprenticeship.

“According to Medr’s management information, as at 26 February 2026 there were 92,800 apprenticeship starts since Q4 2020/21 using the rigorous measure of progress towards Welsh Government’s target. When including the starts which are not counted as part of the more rigorous target measure, there were 101,760 apprenticeship starts overall in the time period.

“The rigorous measure has been used historically to report on progress, including in annual reporting during the current Senedd term. This was also the measure used prior to the target being reduced from 125,000 to 100,000 in June 2024.

“The claim that over 100,000 apprenticeships have been delivered in Wales in this Senedd term is not supported by the rigorous measure and appears to create an inconsistency with previous reporting and could be perceived as cherry-picking the data. 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.

“Transparency matters because it enables debate to focus on the important issues. It is crucial to avoid using data that is overly selective or missing appropriate context.

“Being clear on definitions and the evidence underpinning any such statements can help maintain public confidence in statistics and the organisations that produce them.”

‘Missing targets’

Baroness Morgan made the claim that 100,000 apprenticeships had been delivered in response to a question from Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, who told the Senedd: “Labour’s legacy, all too often, is one of missing targets and then moving the goalposts to hide their own failures. They’ve done it with two-year waits in the NHS, with waiting times in A&E, and now they’re doing it again with apprenticeships.

“But the people of Wales won’t be fooled, and more importantly, the workforce of the future deserves better. And the massaging of figures, I’ll remind you, comes at a time when only last year, Wales saw the lowest ever recorded number of apprenticeship starts.”

Misleading

Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education Natasha Asghar said: “Labour fell short of their target by a wide margin, but still claimed success. Now it’s clear they have also missed their revised target by 8,000.

“After 27 years of Labour and Plaid Cymru selling young people short, they are now misleading them about the very little they have delivered.

“The Welsh Conservatives will deliver an ambitious target of 125,000 apprenticeships over the next Senedd term to give young people the skills Wales needs and drive economic growth.”

The Welsh Government has been invited to comment.