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Written Question
Students: Loans
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to increase the (a) student loan and (b) postgraduate loan repayment thresholds in line with (i) inflation and (ii) the national living wage.

Answered by Robert Halfon

As education, including higher education and student finance, is a devolved matter, this department is responsible for student finance in England only.

The student finance and funding system must provide value for money for all of society at a time of rising costs. It is important that a sustainable student finance system is in place, that is fair to students and fair to taxpayers.

The department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. By the 2024/25 academic year, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven successive years.

The mechanism for setting repayment thresholds for student loans is set out and governed by the Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations 2009 (as amended). This includes provision for annual adjustments, where applicable.

The department will continue to keep the terms of the student finance system under review to ensure that they keep delivering value for money for both students and taxpayers.


Written Question
Department for Education: Written Questions
Friday 20th January 2023

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of (a) ordinary and (b) named-day written questions their Department answered on time in 2022.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from Members of Parliament, including written parliamentary questions. The below table provides the proportion of (a) ordinary and (b) named day written parliamentary questions answered by the Department in 2022.

PQ type

Answered

Answered on time

PQ-Ordinary

2,649

2131 (77%)

PQ-Named

1,217

939 (80%)

Total

3,866

3,070 (79%)


Written Question
Department for Education: Correspondence and Written Questions
Friday 4th November 2022

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps their Department is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from Members of Parliament, either directly, or on behalf of their constituents. The Department runs tailored training sessions for Departmental colleagues specific to written parliamentary questions and ministerial correspondence to improve the quality and timeliness of responses.

All Departments also have access to regular training led by the Parliamentary Capability Team through the Government Campus.


Written Question
Students: Loans
Wednesday 21st September 2022

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps are being taken to support those repaying (a) student loans and (b) student loans plus post-graduate loans in the context of the rising cost of living.

Answered by Andrea Jenkyns

The student loan repayment system incorporates a number of protections for those making loan repayments. Repayments are calculated as a fixed percentage of earnings above the relevant repayment threshold (currently £27,295 for a post 2012 undergraduate plan and £21,000 for a post graduate loan) and do not change as a result of the interest rate charged or the amount borrowed. If a borrower’s income drops, so does the amount they repay. If income is below the relevant repayment threshold, or a borrower is not earning, then they do not have to make repayments at all. Any outstanding debt, including interest accrued, is written off after the loan term ends (or in case of death or disability) at no detriment to the borrower.

The Energy Price Guarantee announced on 8 September will save the average household at least £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October and this is in addition to the £400 energy bills discount for all households.

As part of the package of support for rising energy bills, the government is also giving a council tax rebate payment of £150 to households that were living in a property in council tax bands A to D as their main home on 1 April 2022.


Written Question
Students: Energy
Tuesday 20th September 2022

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of rising energy prices on students in higher education.

Answered by Andrea Jenkyns

To support disadvantaged students and those who need additional help, the department has confirmed in guidance to the Office for Students (OfS) on funding for the 2022/23 financial year that universities will continue to be able to support students in hardship through their own hardship funds and the student premium, for which up to £261 million is available for academic year 2022/23.

We have also worked closely with the OfS to clarify that English providers can draw upon this funding now, to provide hardship funds and support disadvantaged students impacted by cost-of-living pressures.

Maximum grants and loans for living costs have also been increased by 2.3% this academic year. Students who have been awarded a loan for living costs for the 2022/23 academic year that is lower than the maximum, and whose household income for the 2022/23 financial year has dropped by at least 15% compared to the income provided for their original assessment, can apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.

In addition, maximum tuition fees, and the subsidised loans available from Government to pay them, remain at £9,250 for the 2022/23 academic year in respect of standard full-time courses. We are also freezing maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven years. As well as reducing debt levels for students, the continued fee freeze will help to ensure that the HE system remains sustainable while also promoting greater efficiency at providers.

As part of a package of support for rising energy bills, the government is giving a council tax rebate payment of £150 to households that were living in a property in council tax bands A to D as their main home on 1 April 2022. This includes full-time students that do not live in student halls or in property that is not considered a House in Multiple Occupation for council tax purposes. Alongside this, the government is also making available discretionary funding of £144 million to support vulnerable people and individuals on low incomes, including students, to support those ineligible for council tax.

The government has also announced that households will get £400 of support with their energy bills through an expansion of the Energy Bills Support Scheme. Students who buy their energy from a domestic supplier are also eligible for this support. Furthermore, The Energy Price Guarantee, announced on 8 September, will save the average household at least £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. Students who buy their energy from a domestic supplier are eligible for the energy bills discount.


Written Question
Turing Scheme: Wales
Wednesday 2nd March 2022

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding did Welsh universities receive from the Turing Scheme in 2021-22; how many students from Welsh universities studied overseas under the Turing Scheme in 2021-22; and what estimate he has made of the (a) funding for and (b) number of students under that scheme in 2022-23.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Turing Scheme is providing funding for 372 eligible organisations who successfully applied for the 2021/22 academic year, with over 41,000 expected participants. Of these, 13 organisations were Welsh, and these were provided with £5,170,829 of funding. Data on expected participant numbers at these Welsh institutions is not currently available. More details of the funding provided for the 2021/22 academic year is available here: https://www.turing-scheme.org.uk/project-community/funding-results/.

Regarding the number of educational establishments in Wales receiving Turing Scheme funding for 2022/23 and student numbers for 2022/23, we have no data on this yet as applications for the 2022/23 academic year have yet to be made. Data on this will only be available after bids are considered and results are known.

The timetable for applications for Turing Scheme funds for the 2022/23 academic year will be published on the Turing Scheme website on 28 February 2022, along with the programme guide and application guide for this year. The Turing Scheme website is available here: www.turing-scheme.org.uk.

The Turing Scheme is a genuinely UK-wide scheme. There is no proportioning of funds between nations; all will be considered on a competitive basis, as set out in the programme guide.

Fee waivers for Turing Scheme participants are managed on an institutional level.

The Erasmus+ UK National Agency publishes information on the amount of funding received by institutions for Erasmus+ projects from the UK National Agency and the European Commission. Data for each institution, across academic years 2014/15 to 2020/21 is available here: https://erasmusplus.org.uk/funding-results.html. Figures on Erasmus+ student participation will also be published here: https://erasmusplus.org.uk/statistics.html.

At the above statistics website, selecting “Project Mobilities & Outputs”, Table 2 of the file “2014-2019 Higher education mobility statistics” contains the number of outgoing Erasmus+ students by country of provider for academic years 2014/15 to 2018/19. Data for academic years 2019/20 and 2020/21 is not published.


Written Question
Erasmus+ Programme: Wales
Wednesday 2nd March 2022

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding did Welsh universities receive under the Erasmus scheme in (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19, (c) 2019-20 and (d) 2020-21; and how many students from Welsh universities studied overseas under that scheme in each of those years.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Turing Scheme is providing funding for 372 eligible organisations who successfully applied for the 2021/22 academic year, with over 41,000 expected participants. Of these, 13 organisations were Welsh, and these were provided with £5,170,829 of funding. Data on expected participant numbers at these Welsh institutions is not currently available. More details of the funding provided for the 2021/22 academic year is available here: https://www.turing-scheme.org.uk/project-community/funding-results/.

Regarding the number of educational establishments in Wales receiving Turing Scheme funding for 2022/23 and student numbers for 2022/23, we have no data on this yet as applications for the 2022/23 academic year have yet to be made. Data on this will only be available after bids are considered and results are known.

The timetable for applications for Turing Scheme funds for the 2022/23 academic year will be published on the Turing Scheme website on 28 February 2022, along with the programme guide and application guide for this year. The Turing Scheme website is available here: www.turing-scheme.org.uk.

The Turing Scheme is a genuinely UK-wide scheme. There is no proportioning of funds between nations; all will be considered on a competitive basis, as set out in the programme guide.

Fee waivers for Turing Scheme participants are managed on an institutional level.

The Erasmus+ UK National Agency publishes information on the amount of funding received by institutions for Erasmus+ projects from the UK National Agency and the European Commission. Data for each institution, across academic years 2014/15 to 2020/21 is available here: https://erasmusplus.org.uk/funding-results.html. Figures on Erasmus+ student participation will also be published here: https://erasmusplus.org.uk/statistics.html.

At the above statistics website, selecting “Project Mobilities & Outputs”, Table 2 of the file “2014-2019 Higher education mobility statistics” contains the number of outgoing Erasmus+ students by country of provider for academic years 2014/15 to 2018/19. Data for academic years 2019/20 and 2020/21 is not published.


Written Question
Turing Scheme
Wednesday 2nd March 2022

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many education establishments in (a) 2020-21 and (b) 2022-23 were part of the Turing Scheme; how many of those education establishments have tuition fee waiver agreements; and in which countries do those waivers apply.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Turing Scheme is providing funding for 372 eligible organisations who successfully applied for the 2021/22 academic year, with over 41,000 expected participants. Of these, 13 organisations were Welsh, and these were provided with £5,170,829 of funding. Data on expected participant numbers at these Welsh institutions is not currently available. More details of the funding provided for the 2021/22 academic year is available here: https://www.turing-scheme.org.uk/project-community/funding-results/.

Regarding the number of educational establishments in Wales receiving Turing Scheme funding for 2022/23 and student numbers for 2022/23, we have no data on this yet as applications for the 2022/23 academic year have yet to be made. Data on this will only be available after bids are considered and results are known.

The timetable for applications for Turing Scheme funds for the 2022/23 academic year will be published on the Turing Scheme website on 28 February 2022, along with the programme guide and application guide for this year. The Turing Scheme website is available here: www.turing-scheme.org.uk.

The Turing Scheme is a genuinely UK-wide scheme. There is no proportioning of funds between nations; all will be considered on a competitive basis, as set out in the programme guide.

Fee waivers for Turing Scheme participants are managed on an institutional level.

The Erasmus+ UK National Agency publishes information on the amount of funding received by institutions for Erasmus+ projects from the UK National Agency and the European Commission. Data for each institution, across academic years 2014/15 to 2020/21 is available here: https://erasmusplus.org.uk/funding-results.html. Figures on Erasmus+ student participation will also be published here: https://erasmusplus.org.uk/statistics.html.

At the above statistics website, selecting “Project Mobilities & Outputs”, Table 2 of the file “2014-2019 Higher education mobility statistics” contains the number of outgoing Erasmus+ students by country of provider for academic years 2014/15 to 2018/19. Data for academic years 2019/20 and 2020/21 is not published.


Written Question
Turing Scheme
Wednesday 2nd March 2022

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his timetable is for informing education institutions of the outcome of their bid for funding from the Turing Scheme.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Turing Scheme is providing funding for 372 eligible organisations who successfully applied for the 2021/22 academic year, with over 41,000 expected participants. Of these, 13 organisations were Welsh, and these were provided with £5,170,829 of funding. Data on expected participant numbers at these Welsh institutions is not currently available. More details of the funding provided for the 2021/22 academic year is available here: https://www.turing-scheme.org.uk/project-community/funding-results/.

Regarding the number of educational establishments in Wales receiving Turing Scheme funding for 2022/23 and student numbers for 2022/23, we have no data on this yet as applications for the 2022/23 academic year have yet to be made. Data on this will only be available after bids are considered and results are known.

The timetable for applications for Turing Scheme funds for the 2022/23 academic year will be published on the Turing Scheme website on 28 February 2022, along with the programme guide and application guide for this year. The Turing Scheme website is available here: www.turing-scheme.org.uk.

The Turing Scheme is a genuinely UK-wide scheme. There is no proportioning of funds between nations; all will be considered on a competitive basis, as set out in the programme guide.

Fee waivers for Turing Scheme participants are managed on an institutional level.

The Erasmus+ UK National Agency publishes information on the amount of funding received by institutions for Erasmus+ projects from the UK National Agency and the European Commission. Data for each institution, across academic years 2014/15 to 2020/21 is available here: https://erasmusplus.org.uk/funding-results.html. Figures on Erasmus+ student participation will also be published here: https://erasmusplus.org.uk/statistics.html.

At the above statistics website, selecting “Project Mobilities & Outputs”, Table 2 of the file “2014-2019 Higher education mobility statistics” contains the number of outgoing Erasmus+ students by country of provider for academic years 2014/15 to 2018/19. Data for academic years 2019/20 and 2020/21 is not published.


Written Question
Department for Education: Correspondence
Friday 4th February 2022

Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average response time was for his Department to respond to an enquiry from an MP once an enquiry had been received by the MP (a) hotline and (b) account management team in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021.

Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

The government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from MPs, either directly or on behalf of their constituents.

The department does not have an MP hotline or an account management team for MPs. Data on the timeliness of responses to correspondence from MPs and Peers for 2019 and 2020 is published on GOV.UK here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers. Data for 2021 will be published by the Cabinet Office in due course.