Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the annual budget was for the Office for Students in the (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21 financial years; and what the budget is for the 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23 financial years.

The budgets for the Office for Students (OfS) for financial years 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 are as follows:

2019-20 - £1.5 billion

2020-21 - £1.5 billion

2021-22 - £1.5 billion

2022-23 - Not yet confirmed

The funding for the financial year 2022-23 will be confirmed as part of the Spending Review.

The OfS budget includes the Strategic Priorities Grant. The Grant is funding supplied by the government on an annual basis to support higher education (HE) providers’ ongoing teaching and related activities. Since 2012, grant funding has been reduced, while student fees income has increased for HE providers. Fees now make up the bulk of providers’ income. The Strategic Priorities Grant accounts for a relatively small proportion of the total income of HE providers today.