Asked by: Baroness Gohir (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government between 2018 and 2022 how many British citizens, if any, have reported being in a forced marriage to individuals in the UK who have students visas.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Since April 2019, police forces in England and Wales have been required to provide quarterly data returns to the Home Office on so-called ‘honour’-based abuse offences, including forced marriage. The most recent data show 172 forced marriage related offences recorded in the year ending March 2023.
In addition, the joint Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) also publishes statistics on forced marriage cases reported to the unit. The most recent statistics show the FMU provided support in 280 cases of forced marriage in 2023.
The Home Office does not hold data on forced marriages relating to individuals with student visas.
Asked by: Baroness Gohir (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many applications were received for transitioning from a student visa to a spousal visa each year from 2018 to 2022, and what percentage of the applicants were male.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on how people move through the immigration system in the Migrant Journey report. The report contains information on the number of people starting a journey each year broken down by immigration route (e.g. study) and how many extend into other categories (e.g. family) at the end of each year, following their initial leave. The latest report covers up to the end of 2022.
The Home Office publishes data on grants of extensions of stay in the UK, in the Immigration system statistics quarterly release.
Table Exe_D02 shows the number of grants of extensions of stay in the UK, by current and previous category of leave, available from Immigration system statistics data tables. Data on extensions by previous category is available for main applicants and calendar year 2020 only. This data will be updated for 2021 onwards in future Immigration system statistics publications.
Please note, the published statistics relate to the number of grants, not applications.
Asked by: Baroness Gohir (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the success rate of applications for transitioning from a student visa to a spousal visa each year from 2018 to 2022.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on how people move through the immigration system in the Migrant Journey report. The report contains information on the number of people starting a journey each year broken down by immigration route (e.g. study) and how many extend into other categories (e.g. family) at the end of each year, following their initial leave. The latest report covers up to the end of 2022.
The Home Office publishes data on grants of extensions of stay in the UK, in the Immigration system statistics quarterly release.
Table Exe_D02 shows the number of grants of extensions of stay in the UK, by current and previous category of leave, available from Immigration system statistics data tables. Data on extensions by previous category is available for main applicants and calendar year 2020 only. This data will be updated for 2021 onwards in future Immigration system statistics publications.
Please note, the published statistics relate to the number of grants, not applications.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, Education, how many and what proportion of students are studying for a level 3 qualification; and whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of students that will begin (a) a foundation T Level and (b) any T Level course for each academic year between 2024 and 2030.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
In 2022, there were 599,000 students aged 16 in education in England. 440,000 students, or 73%, were studying qualifications at Level 3. More information can be found in the ‘Participation in education, training and employment age 16 to 18’ publication on GOV.UK.
The department does not publish estimates for the number of students that will begin a T Level or T Level Foundation year (TLFY) in each academic year. Over 30,000 students have started a T Level since 2020, and over 16,000 students have started on the TLFY over the first four years. The recently published T Level Action Plan sets out the steps the department is taking to continue to increase uptake over the coming years.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the average length of time the Student Loans Company takes to refund people who have made an overpayment on their student loan.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Student Loans Company (SLC) has a Service Level Agreement of 28 days to make a refund to people who have made an over repayment on their student loan. Based on telephone requests from January to March 2024, the SLC averaged 8 days from the point the request was received to the point the refund was paid to the borrower’s bank account.
Student loans repayments for borrowers resident in the UK are made via HMRC through the UK tax system. Employers deduct repayments each pay period for employees with a student loan when their earnings are above the relevant repayment threshold for that pay period.
Over repayments can occur for a number of reasons, for example the time lag between an employer making a PAYE deduction and HMRC receiving and sending that payment to SLC, which can then confirm that a borrower has paid off their student loan balance. HMRC provides the SLC with student loan repayment information as reported by employers on a weekly basis. For this type of over-repayment, the SLC can automatically make a refund of £5,000 where they are able to verify a borrower’s bank account details.
SLC provide borrowers with the option to switch to repayments via direct debit when they are nearing the end of their loan repayments. This prevents overpayments entirely.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with HM Revenue and Customs on the timeframe for refunding student loan overpayment.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Student Loans Company (SLC) has a Service Level Agreement of 28 days to make a refund to people who have made an over repayment on their student loan. Based on telephone requests from January to March 2024, the SLC averaged 8 days from the point the request was received to the point the refund was paid to the borrower’s bank account.
Student loans repayments for borrowers resident in the UK are made via HMRC through the UK tax system. Employers deduct repayments each pay period for employees with a student loan when their earnings are above the relevant repayment threshold for that pay period.
Over repayments can occur for a number of reasons, for example the time lag between an employer making a PAYE deduction and HMRC receiving and sending that payment to SLC, which can then confirm that a borrower has paid off their student loan balance. HMRC provides the SLC with student loan repayment information as reported by employers on a weekly basis. For this type of over-repayment, the SLC can automatically make a refund of £5,000 where they are able to verify a borrower’s bank account details.
SLC provide borrowers with the option to switch to repayments via direct debit when they are nearing the end of their loan repayments. This prevents overpayments entirely.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of reforming university funding models to reduce dependence on the income of international students.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
It is important that there is a sustainable system to support students and support higher education (HE) that is responsive to the needs of the labour market and the wider economy, and that is fair to students and fair to taxpayers. The government keeps the higher education (HE) funding system under continuous review to ensure that it remains sustainable and provides many different opportunities for learners to acquire vital skills. Longer-term funding plans for the HE sector will be set out at the next multi-year Spending Review, in line with the approach to long-term public spending commitments across government.
In 2021/22, the total income of the HE sector in England was £40.8 billion, up from £28 billion in 2014/15, including £8.8 billion income from international student fees. Of the £40.8 billion, approximately £16 billion was provided by the government. Over the current spending review period, both the Department for Education and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology are investing £1.3 billion in capital funding to support teaching and research.
The department is proud that the UK is home to some of the world’s top universities who benefit from strong international ties, so much so that the UK HE system has educated 58 of current and recent world leaders and has 4 out of the top 10 globally ranked universities. Attracting the brightest students internationally is good for the UK’s universities and delivers growth at home.
Education policy is a devolved matter, and different HE funding arrangements apply in the devolved administrations.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an estimate of the value of tuition fee repayments that were written off due to lower graduate salary levels between 2020 and 2023.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
As education is a devolved issue, the following answer concerns the student finance system in England only. The student finance systems of the devolved administrations differ from that of England.
The department makes regular assessments of the expected write-off amount of student loans issued in each financial year. These forecasts are published on GOV.UK.
The headline statistic Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) charge is the percentage of the loans (both tuition and maintenance) outlaid to students in a given financial year, that the government expects to subsidise, i.e. write-off.
Repayments are calculated based on income, not on the amount borrowed. Borrowers earning less than the repayment threshold repay nothing at all, and loans are cancelled at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower. The Student Loans Company will also cancel a borrower’s liability to repay a loan if the borrower dies or receives an eligible disability-related benefit and because of the disability is permanently unfit for work. It is not possible to disaggregate the pure impact of salary levels of borrowers (graduates and non-graduates) on loan write-offs.
The latest publication of the student loan forecasts for England was published in June 2023, and will be updated at the end of June 2024. The RAB charge for full-time undergraduate higher education (plan 2) loans issued in the 2022/23 financial year was forecast to be 28%.
Student loan repayments volumes are sensitive to the wider economic environment. Earnings of borrowers (both graduates and non-graduates), interest rates, inflation rates, repayment threshold freezes, policy changes and modelling improvements, all influence the RAB charge forecasts. For these reasons RAB forecasts from the past are not directly comparable year-on-year.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what steps he is taking to help ensure female Afghan students can (a) apply for and (b) study through Chevening scholarships.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCDO continues to support higher education for Afghans, currently offering Afghan candidates resident outside of Afghanistan in ODA-eligible third countries the opportunity to apply for a Chevening scholarship.
Under the Chevening Scholarship programme, 15 Afghan women were offered scholarships for academic year 2023/24. 12 women accepted the offer and are currently studying in the UK, out of a total cohort of 21.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the potential merits of introducing a guaranteed permanent residence for international medical graduates qualifying as GPs.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the important role that international medical graduates play in helping to grow the general practice (GP) workforce, and the barriers that they can face upon successful completion of GP Specialty Training. We have introduced an additional four months for these doctors at the end of their visa, which will allow newly qualified international GPs who wish to work in the United Kingdom with the time they require to find employment following completion of their training. Having invested in National Health Service training for these GPs, they should continue working in the sector by securing employment with a GP with a visa sponsorship licence.