Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has conducted an equality impact assessment on the freeze to the Plan 2 student loan repayment threshold due to take effect in April 2027.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It was announced at the Autumn Budget that the repayment and interest thresholds for Plan 2 student loans will be frozen from the 2026/27 financial year until April 2030, when they will increase annually by inflation.
The department will release an equalities impact assessment, including the impact on lifetime repayments, alongside other borrower impacts for the Plan 2 repayment threshold and interest threshold freeze announced at the Autumn Budget.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the interest charged on Plan 2 student loans for meeting the Government’s cost of (a) borrowing to finance those loans and (b) estimated write-offs.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The estimated write offs are reflected in the Resource and Accounting Budget (RAB) charge, the government subsidy anticipated on student loans issued in any particular financial year. The RAB charge is forecast at 32% of total full-time plan 2 loans issued in 2024/25.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the potential impact of the freeze to the repayment threshold from April 2027 on average annual repayments for Plan 2 student loan borrowers.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It was announced at the Autumn Budget that the repayment and interest thresholds for Plan 2 student loans will be frozen from the 2026/27 financial year until April 2030, when they will increase annually by inflation.
The department has produced the attached analysis regarding the impact of freezing the repayment and interest thresholds.
If a borrower is earning above the repayment threshold and their income stays the same, then their repayments will remain the same. If a borrower is not earning above the repayment threshold and their income remains the same, they will continue to not be required to make any repayments.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of freezing the Plan 2 student loan repayment threshold from April 2027 on existing student loan borrowers.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It was announced at the Autumn Budget that the repayment and interest thresholds for Plan 2 student loans will be frozen from the 2026/27 financial year until April 2030, when they will increase annually by inflation.
The department has produced the attached analysis regarding the impact of freezing the repayment and interest thresholds.
If a borrower is earning above the repayment threshold and their income stays the same, then their repayments will remain the same. If a borrower is not earning above the repayment threshold and their income remains the same, they will continue to not be required to make any repayments.
Asked by: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the gap between the introduction of increased tuition fees in 2026 and the reintroduction of maintenance grants in 2029 on students from lower-income households.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
No assessment has been made. Tuition fees are covered by tuition fee loans, so students do not need to pay them while they study.
Regarding students from lower-income backgrounds, we are acting to support them through future proofing our maintenance loan offer by increasing maintenance loans in line with forecast inflation every academic year from 2026/27.
Additionally, from 2028/29, maintenance grants will support full-time students from low-income households studying courses aligned with the government’s missions. The grants will provide disadvantaged full-time students with up to £1,000 extra per year, on top of existing maintenance loans, increasing cash in students’ pockets without increasing their debt.
Asked by: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of student loans issued in each of the last five years for which data is available were for students with a non-Common Travel Area immigration status.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is not able to provide the requested data on settled status in the required timescale.
Settled status is a residency category, which is data held by the Student Loans Company (SLC).
However, changes in the application process over time, including the transition to electronic applications and introduction of new products, systems and processes in line with the legislation, mean that data held for earlier cohorts is held differently across multiple SLC systems.
As a result, it is not currently possible to produce robust settled status data within the required timescales. The department and the SLC are undertaking work to improve the quality and consistency of data provided.
Once this work is complete, the department expects to be able to provide information in response to such questions.
The department is not able to provide the requested data on immigration status. The SLC does not hold immigration status data. Immigration status data is held by the Home Office and is used by the SLC as part of the assessment for loan eligibility. However, as the SLC does not hold immigration status data in their own systems, this breakdown cannot be provided.
Asked by: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the student loan outlay is by immigration status of the student cohort for the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is not able to provide the requested data on settled status in the required timescale.
Settled status is a residency category, which is data held by the Student Loans Company (SLC).
However, changes in the application process over time, including the transition to electronic applications and introduction of new products, systems and processes in line with the legislation, mean that data held for earlier cohorts is held differently across multiple SLC systems.
As a result, it is not currently possible to produce robust settled status data within the required timescales. The department and the SLC are undertaking work to improve the quality and consistency of data provided.
Once this work is complete, the department expects to be able to provide information in response to such questions.
The department is not able to provide the requested data on immigration status. The SLC does not hold immigration status data. Immigration status data is held by the Home Office and is used by the SLC as part of the assessment for loan eligibility. However, as the SLC does not hold immigration status data in their own systems, this breakdown cannot be provided.
Asked by: Hannah Spencer (Green Party - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her Department's policies of the recommendation on the competitiveness of teachers’ pay in The National Foundation for Educational Research report entitled The School Teacher Labour Market in England Annual Report 2026 published on 19 March 2026.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department notes the recent National Foundation for Educational Research report, which highlights some improvement in the competitiveness of teachers’ pay.
The department values all teachers, which is why we have delivered two above inflation awards that, combined, will mean all schoolteachers will have seen an increase in their pay of almost 10% over the last two years.
In making their recommendations on teacher pay in maintained schools each year, the School Teachers’ Review Body carries out rigorous assessments as part of its reports and considers a range of evidence, including key indicators for pay competitiveness.
We are already seeing positive signs that our investment is delivering. The workforce has grown by 2,346 full-time equivalent between 2023/24 and 2024/25 in secondary and special schools, and our teacher pipeline is growing, with just under 32,600 new entrants to initial teacher training in autumn 2025, up 13% on the previous year.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the student loan repayment threshold remaining at its current level on (a) graduates in lower-paid or insecure employment, (b) social mobility and (c) students from lower-income backgrounds.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It was announced at the Autumn Budget that the repayment and interest thresholds for Plan 2 student loans will be frozen from the 2026/27 financial year until April 2030, when they will increase annually by inflation.
The department has produced the attached analysis regarding the impact of freezing the repayment and interest thresholds.
If a borrower is earning above the repayment threshold and their income stays the same, then their repayments will remain the same. If a borrower is not earning above the repayment threshold and their income remains the same, they will continue to not be required to make any repayments.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Collins of Highbury on 16 March (HL Deb col 668), how they will improve the oversight of compliance with the Prevent Duty as a measure to tackle extremism on college and university campuses in the light of the recommendation to reform the Prevent Strategy in Report of the Independent Commission on UK Counter-Terrorism Law, Policy and Practice, published November 2025.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Office for Students is updating its Prevent monitoring framework in line with the 2023 Prevent statutory guidance. It will publish a new framework and guidance in September, which will come into force at the start of 2027, where they will make greater use of Prevent review meetings to target areas of concern and gather more detailed evidence where necessary.
The department will, where required, use its enforcement powers under section 30 of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, including issuing directions enforceable by court order, to secure full compliance with the Prevent duty.