Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether all potential students with a diagnosis of dyslexia or specific learning difficulties whose assessment was carried out by somebody without the Assessment Practising Certificate before the end of February 2019 will have to undertake and pay for a second assessment to make them eligible for the Disabled Students’ Allowance in the future.

The department is yet to conclude discussions currently being held with relevant experts, including the British Dyslexia Association, about the qualifications that should be held by those undertaking specific learning difficulty diagnostic assessments that can be used to determine eligibility for Disabled Students’ Allowances. The experts with whom the department is discussing this issue have knowledge and understanding of diagnostic assessment undertaken for school pupils. The department expects to conclude these discussions by the middle of March 2019.