Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to keep the Muslim community informed on the progress of talks towards a Sharia-compliant agreement on alternative student finance, other than through the Gov.uk website.

The department has convened an expert working group, made up of representatives from the Muslim community and Islamic finance sector, to keep the Muslim community informed on progress towards introducing an alternative student finance product, compatible with Islamic finance principles.

As part of the department’s engagement with the working group, we are seeking their expert advice and drawing on their feedback to develop our community and stakeholder engagement plans.

It is important that the Muslim community is kept informed on the certification of the alternative student finance product as compatible with Islamic finance principles. We have appointed Islamic finance advisers, the Islamic Finance Council UK, to oversee this work and will provide further updates as the work progresses.