Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of limiting the ability for international students not on a research postgraduate course to bring dependents on women's (a) access to and (b) participation in higher education in the UK.

We consider our Public Sector Equality Duty in the development of all policy, and an Equality Impact Assessment was produced and considered in developing this package of reforms.

We consider any indirect impact to be proportionate in achieving our overall aim of reducing net migration and only allowing dependants to a specific cohort of students with the types of skills the UK is specifically seeking to attract to assist economic growth.

We keep all our immigration policies under constant review to ensure they best serve the UK and reflect the public’s priorities.