Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Department for Education will consult the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the security services before it makes a decision on the funding of the Mandarin Excellence Programme beyond August 2025.

The government appreciates the benefits that studying Mandarin can bring to the workforce needs of the United Kingdom.

The government has recently confirmed funding for the Mandarin Excellence Programme until the end of this academic year, when the current contract ends. The department will work with all interested parties across government to consider the future approach to supporting Mandarin language learning beyond August 2025, to meet the UK’s varied needs for a pipeline of Mandarin language speakers.