Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure young people in Leicester East have access to education and training opportunities.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is increasing funding per student in 16 to 19 education and making funding available as the number of young people increases. As a result, total 16 to 19 funding will increase from £7.6 billion in the 2024/25 academic year to over £9 billion in 2026/27.
In addition, for the 2026/27 academic year, we are committing to fund all exceptional in-year growth in 16 to 19 funded students. This means that institutions can have confidence to offer suitable places in post-16 education for every young person that wants one. Leicester College and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College have also benefited from funding awards through the recent Post-16 and Construction Skills Capacity funding round.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Student Loans Company (SLC) data showing that non-UK nationals received approximately £4 billion in student finance in the 2024-2025 academic year, what proportion of higher education lending this amount represents.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The total value of student loans issued, by nationality of recipient, for academic years 2020/21 through to 2024/25 was published in response to Question 296 from the right hon. Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston.
In the 2024/25 academic year, non-UK nationals received £3.97 billion in student loans, representing 20.4% of the total loan value of student loans issued in that year.
Eligibility for student finance is determined by immigration status and residency, rather than nationality alone, ensuring that access to support reflects an individual’s established connection to the UK. To be eligible, a student must ordinarily be a resident in England and be settled or have a recognised connection with the UK. Students must also have been ordinarily a resident in the UK, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and/or a British Overseas Territory for the 3 years prior to the first day of the first academic year of their course. Some individuals are exempt from these requirements. For example, those granted refugee status are not required to meet the standard settlement and residency criteria.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her department has made of annual taxpayer write-offs resulting from unrecovered student loan debt issued to non-UK citizens.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The total amount written off from unrecovered student loan debt issued to borrowers who were non-UK nationals in the 2025/26 financial year was £29 million, to the nearest million, of which 82% was written off due to death of the borrower or the borrower reaching 65 years of age.
An additional £40 million was written off in loans to borrowers of unknown nationality, which could be UK or non-UK nationals. The nationality of all borrowers is checked and validated during the application process. There are a small number of records listed as ‘unknown’, mainly in postgraduate borrower records, which reflect legacy data quality issues in this field in older loan records
The reasons for cancelled or written-off loans include statutory cancellations and write-offs (including those arising from the age of the borrower and eligible Access to Higher Education loan write-offs), death of the borrower, disability, trivial balances and losses through fraud (including phishing).
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many EU national student loan borrowers living abroad have made no loan repayments in the past 12 months.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There are 103,400 EU borrowers living overseas who have a loan which has become eligible for repayment. Of these, 43,700 are earning above the repayment threshold or have unknown earnings but have made no loan repayments in the last 12 months.
An EU borrower is a borrower who was originally domiciled in an EU country prior to entering higher education in England. Tuition fee funding for new EU students in England without ‘settled’ or ‘pre-settled’ status’ ceased in the 2021/2022 academic year. However, those continuing a course remain eligible for financial support for the duration of their course, in addition to those covered by the Withdrawal Agreements, subject to meeting other residency and course requirements.
The government is resolute in our commitment to protecting public money in higher education and we are taking firm action to address serious concerns about the exploitation of the student funding system.
If borrowers based overseas fail to remain in contact with the Student Loans Company (SLC), they are placed in arrears by SLC applying a default required repayment rate, and the outstanding balance can be pursued as debt.
The public expects these debts to be paid and so do we. That is why we are investing in the SLC’s ability to collect debt and working closely with them to go further on getting back what is owed.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department provides to large employers launching work experience initiatives to ensure that placements are paired with formal qualifications or skills accreditation.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
T Levels are the flagship technical qualification for 16 to 19-year-olds and include a mandatory industry placement. These placements provide students with substantial, high-quality, hands‑on experience to develop the skills needed for future employment. Departmental guidance supports providers and employers to design placements with learning goals linked to curriculum content, enabling students to apply the skills and knowledge gained through their qualification. Guidance is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/t-level-industry-placements-guidance-for-providers.
The department also provides a national programme of support to help employers deliver high-quality industry placements, including workshops, webinars and practical online guidance. Further details can be found at: https://employers.tlevels.gov.uk/hc/en-gb.
In addition, the government is introducing new technical educational routes from age 14. These new pathways will combine high-quality vocational qualifications alongside GCSEs, careers guidance and meaningful work experience opportunities. The department will work closely with the Careers & Enterprise Company to provide guidance for employers on offering high-quality work experience placements aligned with these pathways.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of non-UK nationals received student finance in the 2024–25 academic year were qualified for support on the basis of holding pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, broken down by (a) pre-settled status, (b) settled status and (c) EU family member status.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is not able to provide the requested data on pre-settled status, settled status and status related to an EU family member in the required timescale.
The Student Loans Company (SLC) holds data on the residency category under which the borrower is eligible for funding. However, these are not held in a format which can be readily and robustly reported in the requested breakdowns. The department and the SLC are undertaking work to improve the quality and consistency of data provided in this area. Once this work is complete, the department expects to be able to provide information in response to such questions in required timescales.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department takes to verify the continuous UK residence requirements for late EU Settlement Scheme applicants before student finance eligibility is granted.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Student Finance England (SFE) is responsible for assessing personal and course eligibility for higher education student support. To be eligible for student finance an applicant must satisfy the criteria within the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011 (as amended).
Where a late applicant to the EU Settlement Scheme is required to demonstrate that they meet the relevant residence requirements for student support, SFE considers information provided by the applicant about their residence history and may request supporting evidence, such as employment records, tenancy agreements, utility bills or other documentation where necessary to establish eligibility. The Home Office remains responsible for determining an individual's immigration status.
A Certificate of Application does not, by itself, confer entitlement to student support.
In assessing eligibility, SFE may require applicants to provide information and evidence relating to their residence history to determine whether they satisfy the relevant residence requirements set out in the student support regulations.
Additionally, SLC rely on accurate information provided by the Home Office regarding an applicant’s immigration status as the Home Office is the competent authority on such matters.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of Student Loans Company figures on the number of Romanian nationals who received in student loans in 2024-2025.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recently published data on Romanian nationals who received student loans in 2024/25, in the response to Question 10803 to the hon. Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston.
These figures reflect recent work by the department and the Student Loans Company (SLC) to strengthen data quality and consistency. The department and the SLC now hold robust information on current borrowers’ UK national status and nationality.
This process has reduced the number of ‘unknown’ records of student loan recipients by nationality to less than 0.07% in 2024/25 academic year. This is a live management information dataset which is not static, and data can be updated over time as SLC update their records and re-categorise data.
Responses to previous parliamentary questions used nationality as self‑reported by applicants on their Student Finance application form. Under that approach, UK nationals could record an additional nationality alongside proof of their UK national status, which led to inconsistent reporting for borrowers who held UK national status.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the rise in young people not in education, employment or training on local economic growth in Leicester; and what funding is being allocated to local authorities in the East Midlands to tackle this trend.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government recognises that supporting young people into education, training and employment is key to economic growth and improving living standards. In 2026, 6.9% of 16 to 17-year-olds in Leicester were not in education, employment or training (NEET) or their activity was not known, unchanged from 2025. This was above the East Midlands rate of 6.2% and the England rate of 5.8%.
The government is investing an additional £2.5 billion over three years through the Youth Guarantee and Growth and Skills Levy, alongside measures to prevent young people from becoming NEET.
The East Midlands received £5 million as one of eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers testing joined-up local approaches. In Leicester, the city council provides targeted prevention and re-engagement support through its Connexions service and is participating in the Adult Skills Fund Pathways to Devolution pilot. This will help strengthen local approaches to supporting young people into education, employment and training. Locally, Leicester College’s Launchpad programme supports young people furthest from the labour market.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of knife crime education programmes in secondary schools.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is funding the Youth Endowment Fund to build the evidence base on what works to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence, including knife crime, and to make this evidence and practical resources available to schools. Schools can draw on this evidence-informed guidance, alongside resources such as the ‘Leading violence prevention in education: putting what works into action’ programme delivered in partnership with the department.
The government is committed to preventing children and young people from becoming involved in violence and knife crime. Through statutory relationships, sex and health education, secondary schools are expected to teach pupils about personal safety, the risks associated with weapons, gangs and exploitation, and the consequences of involvement in crime and violence.
Education has a vital role to play in preventing violence, and schools are best placed to determine how this content is delivered, taking account of the needs of their pupils and local circumstances, including through engagement with police, youth services and other local partners.