Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many qualifications have been (1) received, and (2) approved, since 1 September 2020 under Exemption type 3: Qualifications in response to economic need.

The moratorium on approving new qualifications at level 3 and below for public funding for students aged 16 and over in England was introduced in September 2020. It was introduced for a period of three years, subject to annual review, and is intended to stabilise the publicly funded qualifications offer before wider reform is implemented. There are two exemptions to the moratorium. These are for qualifications developed in response to economic need and where qualification content has been updated to keep it relevant.

Qualifications which meet these two exemption criteria continue to be approved for funding. The Education, Skills and Funding Agency is due to confirm ongoing arrangements linked to the moratorium in March 2022.

The current moratorium is not intended to constrain the design or delivery of new qualifications where they meet the exemption criteria. The moratorium exemption criteria allow awarding organisations to design qualifications in response to two situations. The first is employer need, for instance in response to regional skills need or a new job role. The second is to meet learner need, for instance ensuring the content of the qualification the student is undertaking remains relevant and current.

These criteria should not prohibit awarding organisations in being innovative in how they design qualifications to meet new skills needs or update their qualifications to ensure students are undertaking relevant content. The current moratorium allows awarding organisations to submit a new qualification for funding approval where it has been designed in response to economic need (this is known as a type 3 exemption). Qualifications submitted under this exemption may be approved where appropriate evidence of economic need is submitted, and the qualification meets all other approval criteria.

Since the start of the moratorium, 40 qualifications have been submitted under the exemption type 3 criteria and 16 have been approved.