Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to announce whether her Department will provide funding for (a) BTEC and (b) Alternative Technical Qualification courses in the (i) 2025-26 and (ii) 2026-27 academic year.

In July 2024, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education announced a short pause to the defunding of qualifications to enable a review of post-16 qualification reforms at Level 3 and below. This was followed by a Written Ministerial Statement by my noble Friend, the Minister for Skills on 25 July. This statement can be accessed here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-07-25/hlws20.

Additional details about the principles of the review were published in an FE Week article on 30 September 2024, which can be accessed here: https://feweek.co.uk/how-well-go-about-reforming-the-level-3-landscape.

The department is working to review the defunding due to take place in 2025 and will publish the outcomes of this review before the end of the year.

The department has not announced any defunding for 2026.