Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of further education college staff who have been made redundant in 2020.

Further education (FE) colleges are independent of the government and responsible for managing their own workforce. The department does not hold data on the number of FE college staff who have been made redundant in 2020.

For information regarding Education and Skills Funding Agency financial management, the latest publication of the college accounts is available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/esfa-financial-management-college-accounts.

The government is investing in FE, and we have announced a 16-19 funding increase of £400 million for 2020-21, which is the biggest injection of new money into 16-19 education in a single year since 2010. This includes a 4.7% increase in the 16-19 base rate of funding and a further £24 million for FE workforce development.