Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has set a target for an expected reduction in the level of student debt between now and 2029.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The projected outstanding student loan balance through to the 2073/74 financial year is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2024-25#section-long-term-student-loan-projections.
There is no expectation for a reduction in the overall nominal level of student loan debt. As demonstrated in the data, the department expect the outstanding student loan balance to grow, with more students attending higher education and the forecasted level of annual outlay for new student loans expected to exceed the forecasted level of repayments received from existing borrowers each year.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to assist in expanding Life Long Learning, particularly among those post school leavers who are from more disadvantaged backgrounds.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to support the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements to attend university, regardless of their background or where they live.
We are introducing targeted, means-tested maintenance grants of up to £1,000 per year from the 2028/29 academic year, providing vital extra support for students from low-income households and are future proofing maintenance loans by committing to increase them in line with forecast inflation every year.
We are transforming the student finance system by introducing the Lifelong Learning Entitlement for courses that start from January 2027. The LLE will broaden access to high-quality, flexible education and training by providing funding for individual modules as well as full courses at levels 4 to 6. All LLE-funded courses and modules with in-person attendance will be eligible for maintenance loan support.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, under the international arrangements English HE providers have for registering with the Office for Students, on how many occasions in the past five years has there been an intervention by the OfS regarding alleged breaches at Confucius Institutes.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The information requested is not held centrally by the department. The Office for Students (OfS), as the independent regulator for higher education in England, is responsible for identifying, monitoring and holding information relating to potential breaches of its regulatory requirements. The OfS publishes details of formal enforcement action where appropriate but does not routinely publish information on notifications it receives or ongoing investigations.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help reduce levels of student debt.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is capping the maximum interest rates on Plan 2 and 3 student loans at 6%, rather than RPI+3%, from 1 September, for the 2026/27 academic year, delivering stability and protection for graduates from escalating student loan interest.
This short-term measure removes the risk of a temporary increase in inflation due to the situation in the Middle East causing loan balances to compound at an unsustainable rate and is in line with actions taken in the past to secure stability in the student finance system.
Secondly, the government is reintroducing targeted, means-tested maintenance grants from academic year 2028/29, which will provide disadvantaged students with up to £1,000 extra support per year, without increasing their debt.
Student finance and higher education funding is a complex, interconnected, system. We are considering a range of options to make the system fairer, but to be fiscally responsible we must consider how any change would be funded.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what checks have been carried out in the last twelve months on student loans awarded to people enrolling at UK Universities whose country of origin was Romania.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
To qualify for support, applicants must provide the Student Loans Company (SLC) with evidence of their eligibility. This includes evidence of their identity, immigration status and ordinary residence.
SLC have robust procedures in place to check student finance eligibility, including data-sharing with the Home Office and HM Passport Office. When required, the SLC will contact the Home Office to confirm an applicant’s immigration status and ordinary residence.
SLC makes payments of loans to students on courses at higher education providers (HEPs) and HEPs in England must be registered with the Office for Students (OfS) before students are eligible to access funding. SLC monitors applications for student finance and works with the department and the OfS to protect public money.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether independent assessment processes exist to monitor the changing costs for local authorities' expenditure on taxi provision to schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Local authorities are responsible for arranging home-to-school travel for eligible children and use a mix of in-house services, passes for free travel on public transport and contracts with private transport operators. Such contracts are a matter for the council and the operator. We encourage councils to have robust arrangements in place. We would expect single-occupancy taxis to be used only when no other solution is appropriate. We are supporting councils through a new home-to-school travel data collection to support benchmarking and publishing guidance to support joined-up decision-making.
We have committed to reform the special educational needs and disabilities system to enable more children to thrive in local mainstream settings. This will mean fewer children will need to travel long distances to access education, reducing the burden on local authorities. These reforms are set out in the Schools White Paper, published on 23 February.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the change was in the level of Student Loan debt between (a) 2020 and (b) 2025.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The total nominal outstanding balance of income contingent student loan balances for England-domiciled borrowers and how this has changed over time can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/student-loans-in-england-2024-to-2025/student-loans-in-england-financial-year-2024-25#income-contingent-icr-student-loan-balance.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people undertook the Essential Digital Skills qualification in the past two years and how many did not complete the course.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
In the 2024/25 academic year, there were 23,930 aim enrolments and 19,320 aim achievements on Essential Digital Skills qualifications in England by adult further education and skills learners. In the 2023/24, academic year there were 28,430 and 22,310 respectively. These figures are published in additional supporting files accompanying the ’Further education and skills’ accredited official statistics publication and have been available since November 2025. The ‘Further education and skills’ publication is available at:
Aim enrolments and aim achievements are separate measures and should not be used to infer progress within an academic year. Additionally, learners may undertake or achieve more than one learning aim in an academic year.
Achievement rates for Essential Digital Skills qualifications are published in the national achievement rate tables in the ‘Further education and skills’ publication. The latest published data, available since March 2025, covers the 2023/24 academic year in England and is available at:
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her planned timetable is for responding to Question 76810 of 12 September 2025 on Confucius Institutes.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The response to Written Parliamentary Question 76810 was published on 15 October 2025.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to monitor activities at Confucius Institutes.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The department engages regularly with representatives from the higher education (HE) sector to support universities to maximise opportunities of collaboration whilst managing risks.
The department expects the HE sector to be alert to a range of risks when collaborating with international partners and to conduct appropriate due diligence and oversight. Any international arrangements English HE providers who are registered with the Office for Students (OfS) make, including Confucius Institutes, should be within the law and comply with OfS registration conditions. These include a commitment to the public interest governance principles, which include operating openly and in accordance with ensuring academic freedom and freedom of speech.
If students, staff, or the public feel that a provider is not meeting these requirements, they can submit a notification to the OfS. As the regulator for registered English providers, the OfS can intervene and use its regulatory powers, if a breach is identified.