Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason there has been a delay in confirming the outcomes of appeals against the adult education budget clawback.

A comprehensive review of each business case received was undertaken to ensure that our decisions were correct. We originally committed to confirming outcomes to eligible providers by 15 November 2021. There was a short delay, until 24 November 2021 whilst those outcomes were finalised and agreed.

Where a provider's business case was not fully supported, they have a right of appeal. The deadline for appeals was 1 December 2021 and we expect to be able to confirm the outcome of those appeals in early January 2022.