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1700766

	registered interest
	date	15/04/2024
	answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
	answering dept id	92
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
	hansard heading	Secretaries of State: Parliamentary Scrutiny
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Leader of the House when they will respond to the Report of the Procedure Committee of the House of Commons Commons scrutiny of Secretaries of State in the House of Lords (1st Report, HC 338).
	tabling member printed	Lord Young of Cookham
	uin	HL3828
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/04/2024 answer text <p>The Government responded to the House of Commons Procedure Committee Report Commons scrutiny of Secretaries of State in the House of Lords (1st Report, HC 338) on Wednesday 17th April 2024. A copy of the report can be found on the Procedure Committees website on the link below.</p><p><strong><br><a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/126/procedure-committee/publications/" target="_blank">https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/126/procedure-committee/publications/</a> </strong></p> answering member printed Lord True question first answered 18/04/2024 11:35:16 answering member 4200 label Biography information for Lord True
	tabling member	57 label Biography information for Lord Young of Cookham

1694356

	registered interest
	date	06/03/2024
	answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
	answering dept id	92
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
	hansard heading	House of Lords: Select Committees
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy on civil servants giving evidence to House of Lords committees, and under what circumstances a request for such evidence may be declined.
	tabling member printed	Lord Watts
	uin	HL3091
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2024 answer text <p>The Government, including the Civil Service, is committed to being as accommodating as possible when requests are made by Select Committees. The Cabinet Office has dedicated guidance for Civil Servants about giving evidence to House of Lords Select Committees. Officials will always carefully consider requests to give evidence. When they do accept such invitations, they require Ministerial agreement and are there to represent the Minister's views.</p><p>In the event that a Select Committee requests a named civil servant from a department and the department feels that they are not the most appropriate person to represent the Minister, the department has the right to suggest an alternative to the Committee. There may be rare examples where the Department and Ministers feel an official is unable to attend, but the guidance is clear that if a Department considers it is unable to meet any requests from the Select Committee, they should inform the Committee as soon as practicably possible and set out the reasons why.</p><p>As Leader of the House of Lords, I have made it clear to my Ministerial Colleagues, that Ministers in both Houses should make every effort to facilitate Select Committee requests, including evidence session attendance.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord True question first answered 19/03/2024 16:38:16 answering member 4200 label Biography information for Lord True
	tabling member	489 label Biography information for Lord Watts

1713294

	registered interest
	date	23/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Students: Loans
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of interest rate charges on Government student loan financing, following research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies which showed that higher interest rates will add more than £10 billion per year to the cost of England’s student loan system.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL4035
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>Student loans are valued in the department’s annual accounts in line with the International Financial Reporting Standard 9 and set out in The Government Financial Reporting Manual which is attached.</p><p>Under which where future cash flows are discounted to measure the fair value of a financial asset, this should be done using the higher of the rate intrinsic to the financial instrument or the HMT discount rate. HMT set the discount rate annually based on a 10 year rolling average of gilt yields. For student loans the intrinsic rate would be the discount rate that gave a Resource Accounting Budget (RAB) or stock charge of 0%, so the HMT discount rate is used provided the RAB charge is greater than 0%. Should the HMT discount rate result in a RAB charge calculation giving a negative value then the intrinsic rate is used instead, meaning that that RAB charge will take a value of 0%.</p><p>The most recent forecasts for the student finance system can be found here: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23</a>.</p><p>The net present value of future repayments was calculated by discounting all future repayments at a rate of RPI -1.3% per year until the end of financial year 2029/30, and -0.2% per year from financial year 2030/31, to the same point in time as the loan outlay or loan balance. This is the discount rate for financial instruments set by HMT in 2022 and is intended to reflect of the cost of government borrowing. The most recent student loan forecasts using the 2023 discount rate set by HMT will be published at the end of June 2024.</p><p>The department has carefully assessed the impact of changes and published a full and comprehensive analysis in the Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment, which is attached.</p><p>The student loan repayment system under Plan 5 is progressive, with repayments being positively correlated with lifetime earnings. The highest earners make the largest individual contributions to the system overall, and the lowest earners are required to contribute the least.</p><p>Lower earners, whether male or female, are protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold, they will not be required to make any repayments at all. At the end of the loan term, any outstanding loan debt, including interest accrued, will be written off at no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of protection.</p><p>The department will continue to keep the student finance system, including repayment terms, under review to ensure that it remains sustainable and delivers value for money for students and the taxpayer.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name HL4035 HL4036 Attachment - The Government Financial Reporting Manual.pdf title The Government Financial Reporting Manual 2 file name HL4035 HL4036 Attachment - Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment.pdf title Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document grouped question UIN HL4036 question first answered 29/04/2024 15:08:37 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

1713295

	registered interest
	date	23/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Students: Loans
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of changes to the student loan repayment system, introduced in August 2023, on female students.
	tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
	uin	HL4036
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>Student loans are valued in the department’s annual accounts in line with the International Financial Reporting Standard 9 and set out in The Government Financial Reporting Manual which is attached.</p><p>Under which where future cash flows are discounted to measure the fair value of a financial asset, this should be done using the higher of the rate intrinsic to the financial instrument or the HMT discount rate. HMT set the discount rate annually based on a 10 year rolling average of gilt yields. For student loans the intrinsic rate would be the discount rate that gave a Resource Accounting Budget (RAB) or stock charge of 0%, so the HMT discount rate is used provided the RAB charge is greater than 0%. Should the HMT discount rate result in a RAB charge calculation giving a negative value then the intrinsic rate is used instead, meaning that that RAB charge will take a value of 0%.</p><p>The most recent forecasts for the student finance system can be found here: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23</a>.</p><p>The net present value of future repayments was calculated by discounting all future repayments at a rate of RPI -1.3% per year until the end of financial year 2029/30, and -0.2% per year from financial year 2030/31, to the same point in time as the loan outlay or loan balance. This is the discount rate for financial instruments set by HMT in 2022 and is intended to reflect of the cost of government borrowing. The most recent student loan forecasts using the 2023 discount rate set by HMT will be published at the end of June 2024.</p><p>The department has carefully assessed the impact of changes and published a full and comprehensive analysis in the Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment, which is attached.</p><p>The student loan repayment system under Plan 5 is progressive, with repayments being positively correlated with lifetime earnings. The highest earners make the largest individual contributions to the system overall, and the lowest earners are required to contribute the least.</p><p>Lower earners, whether male or female, are protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold, they will not be required to make any repayments at all. At the end of the loan term, any outstanding loan debt, including interest accrued, will be written off at no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of protection.</p><p>The department will continue to keep the student finance system, including repayment terms, under review to ensure that it remains sustainable and delivers value for money for students and the taxpayer.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran attachment 1 file name HL4035 HL4036 Attachment - The Government Financial Reporting Manual.pdf title The Government Financial Reporting Manual 2 file name HL4035 HL4036 Attachment - Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment.pdf title Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document grouped question UIN HL4035 question first answered 29/04/2024 15:08:37 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

1713285

	registered interest
	date	23/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Students: Equality
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government why the Department for Education maintains named individuals' religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability information from Higher Education equality monitoring data, rather than retaining the information as anonymised statistics.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Hunt of Bethnal Green
	uin	HL4026
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The department does not directly collect information from higher education institutions concerning the religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability of students. However, the department does receive these variables from Jisc (and previously the Higher Education Statistics Authority) as part of the student records that they share with the department.</p><p> </p><p>The information is held at a named level to enable this data to effectively function as a longitudinal research source, which can be used to compare educational pathways with other (non-educational) outcomes later in life. This will provide an evidence base against which society can evaluate and monitor the impact of education and training on outcomes and support government decision-making to improve services and ensure equality of opportunity for all irrespective of background or circumstances.</p><p> </p><p>While individual identifiers are retained by the department for matching purposes, at all times the department will minimise the processing of, and access to, instant or meaningful identifiers. Access to named data within the department is restricted to a small number of data professionals with responsibility for matching this data with other sources and creating pseudonymised, or aggregated, versions of the data which are subsequently used for research and statistics.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 14:52:46 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4725 label Biography information for Baroness Hunt of Bethnal Green

1702568

	registered interest
	date	19/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Department for Education: Finance
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government which organisations (1) receiving funding through the Department for Education, or (2) holding contracts related to the work of the Department, between 1 January and 22 April have been notified of either (a) a reduction in, or (b) the cancellation of, their funding, broken down by category; which of those organisations will have funding withdrawn (i) in the current financial year, or (ii) over the next two financial years; and what is the total amount that will be withdrawn for such organisations over those periods.
	tabling member printed	Lord Blunkett
	uin	HL3970
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 12:33:26 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	395 label Biography information for Lord Blunkett

1702343

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Overseas Students: Fees and Charges
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of current students at English universities pay international tuition fees; how this compares with the same figure from 2010; and what steps they are taking to ensure that English universities have a long-term, stable and sustainable funding model.
	tabling member printed	The Marquess of Lothian
	uin	HL3954
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The total number of non-EU students at higher education (HE) providers in England in academic years 2021/22 and 2010/11 is published and can be found here: <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis" target="_blank">https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Please note, the data for these years is not comparable as home fee status for EU domiciled students has changed over this period. In 2010/11, all EU students had ‘home status’ meaning they paid the same tuition fees as UK domiciled students. In 2021/22, only existing EU domiciled students had home fee status while those starting their course in 2021/22 did not; they were charged international tuition fees as other non-EU students. In 2021/22, there were 24,365 new EU first year enrolments at HE providers in England.</p><p> </p><p>As autonomous organisations, HE providers have a high degree of financial independence and it is for them to make appropriate and necessary decisions around income, funding, spending and borrowing which ensure their continued financial viability and sustainability.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 12:33:13 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	259 label Biography information for The Marquess of Lothian

1701976

	registered interest
	date	17/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Overseas Students
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of the estimated 33 per cent fall in overseas students on the financial viability of UK universities.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
	uin	HL3891
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The government seeks to ensure that there is a fair and robust migration policy, whilst maintaining the UK’s place as a top destination for the best and brightest students from around the world. The department remains committed to the ambitions set out in the government’s International Education Strategy to host 600,000 international students per year and to increase the value of its education exports to £35 billion per year, both by 2030.</p><p> </p><p>The department expects the UK to remain a highly attractive study destination. The UK has four universities in the top ten, and 17 in the top 100. The UK has a highly sought after higher education (HE) experience, which is respected by students across the globe. The department is hugely proud to have met its international student recruitment ambition two years running.</p><p> </p><p>However, the level of legal migration remains too high. As a result, on 4 December 2023, the government announced a new package of measures to reduce net migration and curb abuse and exploitation of the country’s immigration system.</p><p> </p><p>Our universities are autonomous institutions responsible for managing their own budgets. The department works closely with the Office for Students, the independent regulator of the HE sector in England, to understand the evolving landscape including on risks relating to international students.</p><p> </p><p>It also continues to work closely with the Home Office, the Department for Business and Trade, and other governmental departments to assess the impact of these changes on HE providers.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 12:32:11 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	3792 label Biography information for Baroness Jones of Whitchurch

1701602

	registered interest
	date	16/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Apprentices: Taxation
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to change the apprenticeship levy and to grant firms more flexibility to use funds from the levy to skill up their workforce.
	tabling member printed	Lord Allen of Kensington
	uin	HL3833
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The apprenticeship levy supports employers of all sizes to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training, both for career starters as well as those looking to upskill or retrain.</p><p> </p><p>The success of the levy is enabling the department to invest £2.7 billion in apprenticeships in England in the 2024/25 financial year, and means that 98% of the English apprenticeships budget was spent over the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years. It is important that this funding remains protected to support apprenticeships. The government has no current plans to allow employers to spend the funds available to them on non-apprenticeships training. Allowing employers to use 50% of funds for non-apprenticeship training could create an additional cost of up to £1.5 billion a year. Without additional investment this could reduce apprenticeship starts to 140,000 a year, which would represent an almost 60% decrease on the 2022/23 academic year.</p><p> </p><p>This month the department increased the proportion of the funds that levy-paying employers can transfer from 25% to 50%. This gives levy-paying employers even greater flexibility in how they use the funds available to them while also supporting more apprenticeships in other businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises, flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and charities.</p><p> </p><p>Employers can choose from almost 700 high-quality apprenticeships and have the option of using flexible training models, such as flexi-job apprenticeships and accelerated apprenticeships. Employers can also access other government-funded skills programmes, including T Levels and Skills Bootcamps.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 12:24:55 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4304 label Biography information for Lord Allen of Kensington

1701600

	registered interest
	date	16/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Higher Education: Students
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase investment in skills training to meet the needs of more 150,000 additional students seeking higher education by 2030 in England.
	tabling member printed	Lord Allen of Kensington
	uin	HL3831
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>It is important that the department has a sustainable higher education (HE) funding system that responds to the needs of the economy and that is fair to students and to taxpayers. The government keeps the HE funding system under continuous review to ensure that this remains the case, and to provide many different opportunities for learners to acquire vital skills.</p><p> </p><p>The government is committed to creating a world-leading skills system, backed with an additional investment of £3.8 billion over the course of this Parliament to strengthen HE and further education (FE). This includes increasing opportunities for people to develop higher technical skills through T Levels, Apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps, or Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs). From 2025, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement will transform access to FE and HE, offering all adults the equivalent of four years’ worth of student loans to use flexibly on quality education training over their lifetime.</p><p> </p><p>Through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG), the department is investing hundreds of millions of pounds in additional funding over the three-year period to the 2024/25 financial year to support high-quality teaching and facilities, the majority of which goes to supporting the provision of courses in high-cost subjects including in science and engineering, subjects that support the NHS, and degree apprenticeships. This includes the largest increase in government funding for the HE sector to support students and teaching in over a decade. The recurrent SPG budget is £1,456 million for the 2024/25 financial year. This includes an £18 million increase in support for strategically important high-cost subjects.</p><p> </p><p>The department is also providing £40 million over two years through the SPG to support degree apprenticeship providers to expand and help more people access this provision. The department has seen year-on-year growth in degree level apprenticeships (Level 6 and 7) with almost 230,000 starts since their introduction in the 2014/15 academic year. The government has increased investment in the apprenticeships system in England to over £2.7 billion this financial year, to support employers of all sizes access high-quality apprenticeships at all levels.</p><p> </p><p>The department’s Higher Technical Education reforms are growing skills at Level 4 and 5. The department has introduced new HTQs, which will increase the prestige and uptake of level 4 and 5 qualifications. To date, 172 qualifications have been approved as HTQs across seven occupational routes and are being taught at FE Colleges, Institutes of Technology, Universities, and Independent Training Providers. The department has provided up to £115 million in funding to providers to help grow provision across the country, on top of up to £300 million to create a network of 21 Institutes of Technology.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 12:23:21 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4304 label Biography information for Lord Allen of Kensington