Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure [i] comparability of skills funding between mayoral combined authorities and non mayoral combined authorities and [ii] that skills funding is used to ensure the upskilling of local communities.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Approximately 68% of the Adult Skills Fund is currently devolved to 11 strategic authorities, 1 local authority and the Greater London Authority. From August 2026, a further 4 strategic authorities and 3 local authorities will receive this funding, taking the proportion to around 73%. Where funding is not devolved, the Department for Work and Pensions continue to administer it.
The funding allocation methodology is the same for mayoral and non-mayoral strategic authorities. However, as set out in the English Devolution White Paper, areas with a mayor have a single consolidated pot of adult skills funding with no ringfences.
To ensure that devolved skills funding meets the needs of local economies, in devolved areas each strategic authority is expected to develop and deliver a Strategic Skills Plan. This plan is informed by the region’s Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) and Local Growth Plan.
LSIPs set out the skills needs of an area and the changes required to better align skills provision with employer needs. In both mayoral and non-mayoral areas, the strategic authority works jointly with the designated employer representative body to develop and implement the plan.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
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 international student levy on university incomes.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The International Student Levy will require higher education (HE) providers to pay a flat fee of £925 per international student per year. An impact analysis of the levy published in November 2025 estimated the income losses to the HE sector from the levy in isolation to be £270 million in its first year. The full impact analysis is available here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/international-student-levy-unit/international-student-levy/supporting_documents/international-student-levy-impact-analysispdf.
HE providers are independent from government and as such are responsible for managing their own finances. The department has announced increases to tuition fee limits in line with forecast inflation for the 2025/26, 2026/27, and 2027/28 academic years. We will also legislate, when parliamentary time allows, to increase tuition fee caps automatically for future academic years.
Over the next five years, tuition fee limit uplifts could generate an additional £6 billion for HE providers, significantly outweighing the currently projected less than £1 billion cost of the levy. This approach ensures the sector benefits from compounding annual increases, delivering growing resources to support quality education and innovation.
Asked by: Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist Voice - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department provides to the Royal Veterinary College; and whether her Department has oversight of the RVC’s funding of the Centre for Environmental Justice.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government provides funding to higher education (HE) providers in England on an annual basis through the Strategic Priorities Grant. This funding supports the teaching of expensive-to-deliver subjects such as science and engineering, access and participation of students from under-represented groups, and for world-leading specialist providers such as the Royal Veterinary College.
Through this funding, the Royal Veterinary College has been allocated £12.5 million for the current academic year, 2025/26. Providers are independent and autonomous from government and are responsible for determining how best to use their funding to support teaching and students. Oversight of HE providers in England is the responsibility of the Office for Students.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the net present value impact on the public finances of capping total interest on Plan 2 student loans at 20 per cent of the original principal.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not hold analysis on the impact on the public finances of capping total interest on Plan 2 student loans at 20% of the original principal value of the loan.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the value of interest repayments on Plan 2 student loans net of (a) the Government’s cost of financing student loan outlay, (b) expected write-offs and (c) administrative costs.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Repayments made against accrued interest are not separated from repayments made against the borrowed portion of the loan.
The department publishes an estimate of the subsidy portion of student loan outlay in the form of the Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) charge. The RAB charge for Plan 2 outlay in England in 2024/25 was 32%.
The RAB charge is calculated as the present value of student loan outlay less expected future repayments, discounted by inflation plus the financial instrument discount rate. Expectations of interest, write offs and the government’s borrowing costs are factored into the fair value of student loans on issuance. In valuing the loan book at financial year end, estimated operational costs of servicing student loans are accounted for, in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards. Higher interest relative to inflation reduces the forecasted cost of the loan system due to increased future repayments.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much and what proportion of the downward revaluation of the student loan book in the latest outturn reflects (a) revised graduate earnings and repayment assumptions and (b) changes in the discount rate used to value future repayments.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As of 31 March 2025, the fair value of the student loan book was £157.9 billion, representing a £6.9 billion increase on the opening balance of £151.0 billion.
The fair value loss in the 2024/25 financial year was £8.6 billion. Of this, the change in the discount rate brought about a £280 million gain. The residual loss was £6.7 billion, which was impacted by changes in macroeconomic determinants such as the Office for Budget Responsibility’s earnings outlook, which was more pessimistic than in the prior year.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of Plan 2 student loan borrowers have repaid in real terms more than (a) 100 per cent, (b) 120 per cent and (c) 150 per cent of the amount originally borrowed; and how many of those borrowers have (i) an outstanding balance and (ii) fully repaid their loans.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not hold data that allows us to provide the proportion of the amount originally borrowed that has been repaid in real terms.
The projected percentage of Plan 2 student borrowers in 2022 who are expected to fully repay their loan in real terms is available at:
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2026 to Question 109541 on Jean Monnet Action: Finance, whether UK educational institutions will participate in the Jean Monnet Actions in relation to (a) supporting European Union studies, (b) the Jean Monnet Network on internal policy and (c) teacher training.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire to the answer of 26 March 2026 to Question 114071.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what was the funding per student in English further education colleges in 2010, 2024 and 2025-26.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The table below uses the published 16 to 19 funding allocations to derive the average total programme funding per student in general further education (FE) colleges, for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years. The figures are not available for 2010 to 2011.
Average funding per student in general FE colleges | |
2024/25 | £6,753 |
2025/26 | £7,419 |
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to Part 2 student loan repayments and the freezing of interest thresholds on [a] women and [b] students with disabilities.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We inherited a Plan 2 loan system that was devised and implemented by the previous government, and there have not been retrospective changes to repayments. Students sign the terms and conditions of the student loan plan type available at the time of their studies before any money is paid to them. Student loan terms and conditions make clear that the conditions of the loan may change in line with the regulations that govern the loans.
There has also been no freezing of interest rate threshold. Interest accrues on loan balances at a rate of Retail Price Index (RPI) to RPI+3% until the loan has been repaid in full or is cancelled. Borrowers on Plan 2 terms have interest applied at RPI only if earnings fall below the repayment threshold and interest rates do not impact monthly repayments made by borrowers.
If a borrower becomes disabled and permanently unfit for work, loan balances, including interest, may be written off. For all borrowers, any outstanding loan, including interest accrued, will be cancelled after the loan term ends, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants.