Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of differential university tuition fees based on the Teaching Excellence Framework on further education access for students from the most financially disadvantaged backgrounds.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Maximum fee limits for all higher education (HE) providers will increase from £9,535 to £9,790 in the 2026/27 academic year, and from £9,790 to £10,050 in the 2027/28 academic year. We will then legislate, when parliamentary time allows, to increase tuition fee caps automatically for future academic years.

In return for the increased investment that we are asking students to make, we expect the HE sector to deliver the very best outcomes both for those students and for the country. To achieve this, we will link future inflationary fee uplifts to judgements on HE providers’ quality and restrict fee income where high quality cannot be demonstrated.

The Office for Students (OfS) will consider a wide range of metrics when determining quality judgements. All HE providers registered with the OfS that intend to charge higher level tuition fees must have an Access and Participation Plan approved by the OfS.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of linking differential fees to teaching standards on higher education institutions with higher than average rate of admission to students from the most financially disadvantaged backgrounds.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Maximum fee limits for all higher education (HE) providers will increase from £9,535 to £9,790 in the 2026/27 academic year, and from £9,790 to £10,050 in the 2027/28 academic year. We will then legislate, when parliamentary time allows, to increase tuition fee caps automatically for future academic years.

In return for the increased investment that we are asking students to make, we expect the HE sector to deliver the very best outcomes both for those students and for the country. To achieve this, we will link future inflationary fee uplifts to judgements on HE providers’ quality and restrict fee income where high quality cannot be demonstrated.

The Office for Students (OfS) will consider a wide range of metrics when determining quality judgements. All HE providers registered with the OfS that intend to charge higher level tuition fees must have an Access and Participation Plan approved by the OfS.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to support sustainable farming initiatives.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament, investing more than £2.7 billion a year in farming and nature recovery. Overall, farmers and land managers will benefit from an average of £2.3 billion a year through the Farming and Countryside Programme. And up to £400 million from additional nature schemes, including those for tree planting and peatland restoration. This includes increasing spend on nature-friendly farming including Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes to £2 billion by 28/29.

Defra will continue to invest in our farmers and land managers to make their businesses, food production and our country more sustainable and resilient through ELM.

Found: EIF formally launched in Parliament on 3rd April 2025, with support from Uma Kumaran MP and Deputy Mayor

Found: Thornberry (Chair); Fleur Anderson; Alex Ballinger; Aphra Brandreth; Phil Brickell; Richard Foord; Uma Kumaran

Found: Thornberry (Chair); Fleur Anderson; Alex Ballinger; Aphra Brandreth; Phil Brickell; Richard Foord; Uma Kumaran