Asked by: Lord Smith of Clifton (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many students aged 19–24 were on access to higher education courses funded via the adult education budget in England in 2015–16.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We estimate that there were 13,000 funded learners aged 19-24 who participated in Access to higher education (HE) courses in the 2015-2016 academic year in England through the adult skills budget. £37 million of the adult skills budget has been spent on delivering Access to HE courses.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Clifton (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the adult education budget in England was spent on access to higher education courses for 19–24 year olds in 2015–16.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We estimate that there were 13,000 funded learners aged 19-24 who participated in Access to higher education (HE) courses in the 2015-2016 academic year in England through the adult skills budget. £37 million of the adult skills budget has been spent on delivering Access to HE courses.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Clifton (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was (1) the indicative budget allocation, and (2) the actual level of borrowing, for part-time higher education fee loans in England in (a) 2016–17, and (b) 2017–18.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Student Loans Company publishes statistics on student loan expenditure by financial year as part of an annual national statistic ‘The Student Loans Company: Student Loans in England’. These statistics are available in the tables at:
https://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment/england.aspx.[1]
In the financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18, £237.6 million and £246 million respectively were paid in part-time tuition fee loans in England.
There is no separate budget for part-time loans in the department. The budget for student loans for all types of study is included within the Departmental Supplementary Estimates. For financial year 2016-17 see the attachment entitled “Part II: Changes Proposed”, also available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supplementary-estimates-2016-17, (page 185). For 2017-18 see attachment entitled “Part II: Revised subhead detail including additional provision”, also available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supplementary-estimates-2017-18, (page 196).
[1] It is not possible to attach this information as it is part of a lengthy, complex and detailed data set.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Clifton (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many 19–24 year olds on first full Level 3 Further Education programmes were studying (1) full-time, and (2) part-time, in England in 2016–17.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The information requested is not held centrally.
A total of 203,890 learners aged 19 to 24 years old participated in full Level 3 courses in the 2016-17 academic year.
Additional information on further education and skills participation is attached and also available from the ‘FE data library: further education and skills’ demographic tool at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-further-education-and-skills.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Clifton (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many regulatory agencies were operating in the UK in 2017–18; and what was the total annual running cost of those agencies.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
61 Arm’s Length Bodies with regulatory functions are listed in the Cabinet Office publication Public Bodies 2017. Many of these bodies also have non-regulatory functions. This publication does not include regulators operating as part of Government departments, outside central government, in devolved or local government, nor those which remain unclassified. The running cost of these bodies is set out in Public Bodies 2017, but this includes the cost of non-regulatory functions – the running cost of regulatory functions is not separately identified.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Clifton (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the 2016–17 Adult Learner Budget in England was loaned for maintenance costs to (1) 19–24 year olds, and (2) those aged 25 and over.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
There are no maintenance loans paid from the Adult Education Budget (AEB).
AEB providers have access to Learner Support funding, which can be used to support eligible learners with some costs such as childcare, transport and residential costs. For 2016 to 2017 the total spend on Learner Support within the AEB was £67 million. This information is not available by age.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Clifton (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the Adult Learner Loan Budget in England was allocated to 19–24 year olds to pay for (1) Level 4–6 courses, (2) Access to Higher Education courses, and (3) Level 3 courses, in the academic year 2016–17.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Advanced Learner Loan providers are issued with a loans ‘facility’ by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), this is a notional allocation. The Department for Education reports on the proportion that is paid by the Student Loans Company to providers on behalf of 19-23 year old loans learners, split by qualification level/type for the academic year 2016/17:
Level / Type | All Age | Proportion of 19-23 year olds |
Access to Higher Education | £55,600,545.98 | 29.74% |
Level 3 | £175,909,805.78 | 19.87% |
Level 4-6 | £14,109,268.59 | 17.77% |
Data source: Student Loans Company.
Note: The Student Loans Company uses the 19-23 age band to record learner age.
Providers have the freedom to use their facility for any eligible learners aged 19 and over for any approved learning aims at levels 3 to 6. The ESFA does not allocate funding for a particular age group or level of qualification.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Clifton (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total number of domiciled students in England in (1) 2015–16, and (2) 2016–17, aged (a) 18 to 24, and (b) 25 and over, who were taking (i) full-time foundation degrees, (ii) part-time foundation degrees, (iii) full-time Higher National Certificate (HNC) and Higher National Diploma (HND) courses, and (iv) part-time HNC and HND courses; and of those, how many were studying at further education colleges.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has prepared information on students domiciled in England enrolled on foundation degrees, higher national diplomas, or higher national certificates. The figures cover HEFCE-funded higher education institutions and further education colleges in England, as well as enrolments at alternative providers in England. Figures for the academic years 2015/16 and 2016/17 have been provided in the attached table.
Figures for 2016/17 are provisional, and all figures are valid as of 16 March 2018.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Clifton (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the adult education budget in England in 2016–17 was allocated to 16–24 year olds (1) in total, (2) for those on first full Level 2 courses, and (3) for those on first full Level 3 courses.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The adult education budget funds learners aged 19 and over. It is not allocated by age group or qualification type and through freedoms and flexibilities providers can earn their allocation in line with the funding rules we set each year.
Information on volumes of full level 2 and 3 qualifications can be found in table 3 of the further education and skills: November 2017 main table which is attached and also available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/further-education-and-skills-november-2017. Please note that this includes Offenders’ Learning and Skills Service provision and shows all level 2 and 3 qualifications not just first full level 2 and 3 qualifications.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Clifton (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the resource accounting budgeting charge in England for (1) fee-loans for part-time higher education undergraduate students, (2) loans for adult learners at Level 3, (3) loans for adult learners at Levels 4 and 5, and (4) future maintenance loans for part-time higher education undergraduate students.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) charge for fee loans for part-time higher education undergraduate students is estimated to be around 40%.
The RAB charge for Advanced Learner Loans at Level 3 is estimated to be around 50%-55%. The estimate includes Access to Higher Education (HE) courses which allow any learner progressing to HE to have their loan written off at the point of completing their HE course.
The RAB charge for Advanced Learner Loans at Level 4 and above is estimated to be around 20%-25%.
It is estimated that the RAB charge for part-time higher education undergraduate loans will increase to around 45% once maintenance loans have been made available to part-time students.
The cost of the system is a conscious investment in young people. It is the policy subsidy required to make higher and further education widely available, achieving the government’s objectives of increasing the skills in the economy and ensuring access to university for all with the potential to benefit.