Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the document entitled UK Infrastructure: A 10 Year Strategy, CP 1344, published on 19 June 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of childcare provision on the delivery of that strategy.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Investment in childcare provision is an essential part of the government’s 10 Year Strategy, which is why it sets out an investment of almost £370 million to deliver tens of thousands of new early education and childcare places by opening or expanding school-based nurseries in England. School-based nurseries are a key part of this government’s Opportunity Mission, delivering on our Plan for Change by expanding the high-quality early education across England that supports children’s lifelong learning and success.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of a Basic Student Income.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government does not have plans to introduce a non-means tested basic income for students in England.
Decisions on student finance have to be taken to ensure the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of higher education (HE) are shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university.
The devolved governments have responsibility for HE in their respective countries and determine the student finance arrangements and their sustainability for their students.
The partially means-tested loan for living costs is provided as a contribution towards a student’s living costs while attending university rather than necessarily covering those costs in full, with the highest levels of support paid to students from the lowest income families who need it most. Financial support may be provided by the student’s parents or partner, but there are several other sources of funding available for students such as part-time employment, university bursaries and scholarships and local authority support such as the HE bursary.
Students awarded a loan for living costs for the 2023/24 academic year that is lower than the maximum, and whose household income has dropped by at least 15% compared to the income provided for their original assessment can apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.
The government recognises the additional cost-of-living pressures that have arisen this year and that are impacting students. The department has increased loans for living costs each year for students in England, with a 2.8% increase for the current academic year, 2023/24 and further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25.
The department has already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students including disadvantaged students.
The department is now making a further £10 million of one-off support available to support student mental health and hardship funding. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.
Over the 2022/23 to 2024/25 financial years, the government is providing support worth £104 billion, or £3,700 per household on average, to help families throughout the UK with the cost of living, including help to meet increased household energy costs. This will have eased the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enabled many families to provide additional support to their children in HE to help them meet increased living costs.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of providing additional funding to remove the presence of RAAC in schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Education is a devolved matter; and the response outlines the information for England only and not Northern Ireland.
The department will always put the safety and wellbeing of children and staff in education settings at the heart of its policy decisions.
The department will spend whatever it takes to keep pupils safe and is funding the emergency work needed to mitigate the presence of RAAC in school and college buildings in England, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary. Where schools and colleges in England need additional help with revenue costs, all reasonable requests are being approved.
The department will also fund the removal of RAAC from the school and college estate in England. Schools and colleges in England will either be offered capital grants, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, including through the School Rebuilding Programme. The department will set out further details for affected schools and colleges in due course.
Ministers and officials have regular discussions with colleagues from His Majesty’s Treasury on a range of issues. The department’s immediate support will be managed from unallocated departmental budgets. This will not have an impact on existing programmes. The department will provide further information about funding at relevant points in due course.
The government has taken more proactive action to identify and mitigate RAAC in education settings than the devolved administrations in the UK, or indeed, governments overseas.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of UK Charities who will benefit from the Turing Scheme.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The Turing Scheme will fund students at UK universities, colleges, training providers and schools to go on study and work placements overseas. Backed by £110 million, it will provide funding for around 35,000 students, a similar number as Erasmus+ outgoing mobility. This means around 20,000 higher education students, 10,000 further education and vocational training students and 5,000 school pupils will be able to benefit, subject to demand, for mobilities to take place from September 2021.
The scheme will be global, allowing students to undertake mobilities to countries around the world.
The Turing Scheme will fund students only, not staff placements (apart from those staff necessary to accompany or chaperone student placements). In considering what elements of the Erasmus+ programme we would immediately replicate under the Turing Scheme, we prioritised ensuring that as many students, learners and pupils as possible have access to life-changing mobilities to support them in developing the skills they need to thrive.
UK universities, colleges, training providers and schools are eligible to bid for funding from the Turing scheme. We have not estimated how many eligible education providers are also charities.
The Turing Scheme is an education mobility scheme. International opportunities for young people outside of formal education settings such as youth activity (similar to that offered under the European Solidarity Corps) are being considered as part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport-led Youth Review, which was commissioned by HM Treasury at the 2020 Spending Review.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of (a) the effectiveness of the scope of the Turing scheme and (b) its ability to replace the European Solidarity Corp.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The Turing Scheme will fund students at UK universities, colleges, training providers and schools to go on study and work placements overseas. Backed by £110 million, it will provide funding for around 35,000 students, a similar number as Erasmus+ outgoing mobility. This means around 20,000 higher education students, 10,000 further education and vocational training students and 5,000 school pupils will be able to benefit, subject to demand, for mobilities to take place from September 2021.
The scheme will be global, allowing students to undertake mobilities to countries around the world.
The Turing Scheme will fund students only, not staff placements (apart from those staff necessary to accompany or chaperone student placements). In considering what elements of the Erasmus+ programme we would immediately replicate under the Turing Scheme, we prioritised ensuring that as many students, learners and pupils as possible have access to life-changing mobilities to support them in developing the skills they need to thrive.
UK universities, colleges, training providers and schools are eligible to bid for funding from the Turing scheme. We have not estimated how many eligible education providers are also charities.
The Turing Scheme is an education mobility scheme. International opportunities for young people outside of formal education settings such as youth activity (similar to that offered under the European Solidarity Corps) are being considered as part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport-led Youth Review, which was commissioned by HM Treasury at the 2020 Spending Review.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing tuition fees for the 2020-21 year to compensate students for the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on their university studies and experience.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
This has been a very difficult time for students, and the government is working with the sector to make sure all reasonable efforts are being made to enable students to continue their studies. The Government’s clear and stated expectation is that universities should maintain the quality and quantity of tuition and seek to ensure that all students regardless of their background have the resources to study remotely. This is more important than ever at the moment with the vast majority of students studying solely online.
Universities are autonomous and responsible for setting their own fees, up to a maximum of £9,250 for approved (fee cap) institutions. The Office for Students (OfS), as regulator for higher education (HE) providers in England, has made it clear that HE providers must continue to comply with registration conditions relating to quality and academic standards, which set out requirements to ensure that courses are high-quality, that students are supported and achieve good outcomes and that standards are protected, regardless of whether a provider is delivering its courses through face-to-face teaching, remote online learning, or a combination of both.
The OfS is taking very seriously the potential impacts of COVID-19 on teaching and learning and is regularly engaging with all registered providers. It is actively monitoring providers to ensure: that they maintain the quality of their provision; that it is accessible for all; and that they have been clear in their communications with students about how arrangements for teaching and learning may change throughout the year. The OfS is also following up directly with providers where they receive notifications from students, parents or others raising concerns about the quality of teaching on offer and requiring providers to report to them when they are not able to deliver a course or award a qualification. If the OfS has concerns, it will investigate further.
Whether or not an individual student is entitled to a refund of fees will depend on the specific contractual arrangements between the provider and student. If students have concerns, there is a process in place. They should first raise their concerns with their university. If their concerns remain unresolved, students at providers in England or Wales can ask the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) for Higher Education to consider their complaint.
The OIA website is available via the following link: https://www.oiahe.org.uk/
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published guidance on consumer contracts, cancellation and refunds affected by COVID-19. This sets out the CMA’s view on how the law operates to help consumers understand their rights and help businesses treat their customers fairly. This is available via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cma-to-investigate-concerns-about-cancellation-policies-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-consumer-contracts-cancellation-and-refunds.
The Office for Students has also published guidance on student consumer protection during the COVID-19 outbreak, which is available via the following link: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-students/student-and-consumer-protection-during-coronavirus/.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if the Government will rescind its plans to cease funding the Union Learning Fund in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
We are focusing on a much larger and more comprehensive package of training support. This includes the establishment of a £2.5 billion National Skills Fund to help adults get the skills they need, including the Lifetime Skills Guarantee which will support any adult who does not yet have an A level equivalent qualification to obtain one. This is in addition to the existing entitlement for adults without English and maths level 2 qualifications or Basic Digital Skills level 1 to get fully funded support to gain these essential qualifications.
As part of our expanded commitment to skills development through the National Skills Fund and Lifetime Skills Guarantee, I can confirm all the money will be invested in skills and retraining that will be fully accessible to everyone.
The government has no plans to reverse this decision.