Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what financial support he plans to provide to the English language teaching sector in 2021 in response to the covid-19 outbreak.

The International Education Strategy recognises the crucial contribution of the English language to the UK's global potential and the important role of the English language training sector. Our update to this strategy, published on 6 February 2021, outlines the government’s support for the education sector, including English language training, in response to the COVID-19 outbreak as well as work across government aimed at improving the ability of the English language training sector to export their services and expertise.

English language schools are privately run businesses who teach fee-paying students in the UK and as such, are not in receipt of any funding from the department for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision. The department provides ESOL provision for people already resident within the UK through the Adult Education Budget.