Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of Plan 2 student loan repayments and interest rates on graduates from different socio-economic backgrounds.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Plan 2 student loans were designed and implemented by previous governments. Students in England starting degrees under this government have different arrangements.
Plan 2 loans interest rates are applied at the Retail Price Index (RPI) only, then variable up to RPI +3% depending on earnings. Interest rates do not impact monthly repayments made by student loan borrowers, which stay at a constant rate of 9% above an earnings threshold to protect lower earners. If a borrower’s salary remains the same, their monthly repayments will also stay the same. Any outstanding loan and interest is written off at the end of the loan term, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consideration she has given to linking Plan 2 student loan interest rates to inflation only.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Plan 2 student loans were designed and implemented by previous governments. Students in England starting degrees under this government have different arrangements.
Plan 2 loans interest rates are applied at the Retail Price Index (RPI) only, then variable up to RPI +3% depending on earnings. Interest rates do not impact monthly repayments made by student loan borrowers, which stay at a constant rate of 9% above an earnings threshold to protect lower earners. If a borrower’s salary remains the same, their monthly repayments will also stay the same. Any outstanding loan and interest is written off at the end of the loan term, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what performance monitoring and enforcement mechanisms are in place to ensure that the administrative provider of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme delivers services to the agreed standard, and what recourse is available to members should those standards not be met.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Details of how personal data is processed and stored are outlined in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) privacy notice which is available here: https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/-/media/documents/member/factsheets/gdpr/dfe-privacy-notice-gdpr-v12-march-2023-for-web.ashx?rev=a6788c6aa67e4ac7b3d3f4df74462add&hash=ACAAEF10BB57B5814744376B519FABA1.
The TPS complies fully with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 and the Data Protection Act 2018.
For members requiring additional communication support, the contact us page provides alternative communication options. The scheme also meets the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and is committed to ensuring accessibility for all members and employers. The accessibility statement on the TPS website explains how the site is designed to be inclusive and is available here: https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/public/accessibility.aspx.
To maintain service standards, the department monitors the administrator against agreed performance metrics, set out in the TPS administration contract, through established governance arrangements. If contract administration fails to meet established standards and performance metrics, the department can impose financial penalties on the administrator.
Where members believe service standards have not been met, they can use a dispute resolution process to raise this. If dissatisfied with the outcome, they may escalate their complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman for independent review.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the service standards and accessibility requirements for the administrator of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme will include provisions to support members with hearing impairments or communication needs when accessing helpline or case-management support.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Details of how personal data is processed and stored are outlined in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) privacy notice which is available here: https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/-/media/documents/member/factsheets/gdpr/dfe-privacy-notice-gdpr-v12-march-2023-for-web.ashx?rev=a6788c6aa67e4ac7b3d3f4df74462add&hash=ACAAEF10BB57B5814744376B519FABA1.
The TPS complies fully with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 and the Data Protection Act 2018.
For members requiring additional communication support, the contact us page provides alternative communication options. The scheme also meets the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and is committed to ensuring accessibility for all members and employers. The accessibility statement on the TPS website explains how the site is designed to be inclusive and is available here: https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/public/accessibility.aspx.
To maintain service standards, the department monitors the administrator against agreed performance metrics, set out in the TPS administration contract, through established governance arrangements. If contract administration fails to meet established standards and performance metrics, the department can impose financial penalties on the administrator.
Where members believe service standards have not been met, they can use a dispute resolution process to raise this. If dissatisfied with the outcome, they may escalate their complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman for independent review.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the personal data of members of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme is (a) stored, (b) processed and (c) protected in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Details of how personal data is processed and stored are outlined in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) privacy notice which is available here: https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/-/media/documents/member/factsheets/gdpr/dfe-privacy-notice-gdpr-v12-march-2023-for-web.ashx?rev=a6788c6aa67e4ac7b3d3f4df74462add&hash=ACAAEF10BB57B5814744376B519FABA1.
The TPS complies fully with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 and the Data Protection Act 2018.
For members requiring additional communication support, the contact us page provides alternative communication options. The scheme also meets the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and is committed to ensuring accessibility for all members and employers. The accessibility statement on the TPS website explains how the site is designed to be inclusive and is available here: https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/public/accessibility.aspx.
To maintain service standards, the department monitors the administrator against agreed performance metrics, set out in the TPS administration contract, through established governance arrangements. If contract administration fails to meet established standards and performance metrics, the department can impose financial penalties on the administrator.
Where members believe service standards have not been met, they can use a dispute resolution process to raise this. If dissatisfied with the outcome, they may escalate their complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman for independent review.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of existing funding levels for the Music and Dance Scheme; and whether she plans to (a) uplift bursary rates in line with inflation and (b) provide multi-year funding settlements to give greater certainty to participating schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Bedford, to the answer of 23 October 2025 to Question 78882.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support the arts and humanities in the higher education sector.
Answered by Janet Daby
The government is committed to supporting creative subjects, such as the arts and humanities, in higher education (HE).
For the 2024/25 academic year, the department has allocated around £12.9 million in high-cost subject funding from the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) towards creative and performing arts courses to cover course costs. This increases the per student funding rate to £130.54, which is an increase of 3.8%.
The department has also maintained SPG funding for world-leading small and specialist providers at £58 million for the 2024/25 academic year. Of the 20 providers recognised in this way, 12 are creative and performing arts providers.
The department knows that the HE sector needs a secure financial footing to face the challenges of the next decade, and to ensure that all students can be confident they will receive the world-class HE experience they deserve. That is why, after seven years of frozen fee caps under the previous government, we have taken the difficult decision to increase maximum tuition fee limits for the 2025/26 academic year by 3.1%, in line with the forecast rate of inflation.
The department will continue to work with the Office for Students to ensure that costs of provision are assessed.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of (a) revising the school calendar and (b) reducing the length of the school summer holidays.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
The department does not currently have any plans to propose changes to the school calendar or to the setting of school holidays.
School holidays are not determined at national level, they are decided locally by trusts, schools and local authorities depending on school type. The department believes that they are best placed to set school term and holiday dates in the interests of the pupils at their schools and their parents.
If schools, trusts or local authorities decide to change their term dates, it is expected that they will act lawfully and reasonably, giving parents notice and considering the impact on those affected. This includes pupils, teachers, the local community, parents’ work commitments and childcare options for both parents and teachers.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of supporting further education institutions to offer (a) apprenticeship and (b) course placements to students on a Homes for Ukraine visa that may expire before the course conclusion.
Answered by Janet Daby
In determining student eligibility for 16 to 19 funding, including for Ukrainians aged 16 to 19 living in the UK under the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine), institutions must satisfy themselves that there is a reasonable likelihood that the student will be able to complete their study programme before seeking funding for the student. However, when a student applies for a study programme where their current legal permission to remain in the UK expires six months or more after they start, then institutions may allow them to enrol. The department considers it sufficient for institutions to rely on confirmation from the student, and/or family, that they intend to apply for the necessary extension to their permission to remain for the duration of their study programme.
The situation is similar for adult learners. Providers should only fund a learner if their visa has enough time for the learner to complete their course. However, where the learner’s visa will expire before the end of the course, the provider can use their discretion to fund the learner where they have a high degree of certainty that the learner intends to renew their visa. The department would expect that individuals who are not yet eligible to apply for the Ukraine Permission Extension scheme, but intend to apply for it, would be eligible for funding under this rule.
The department’s apprenticeship funding rules state that an individual must be able to complete the apprenticeship within the time they have available. Where the learner’s residency permit does not extend to the entire length of the apprenticeship, they are not eligible for funding. The department must be mindful when spending taxpayers’ funds on training and it wants learners to be able to complete their apprenticeships within the time they have available. The department will keep this under review as it does with all of its rules.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to review licensing arrangements for children's homes in densely populated residential areas.
Answered by Janet Daby
It is essential that there are enough children’s homes for those vulnerable children who need residential care, and that these homes are in the areas children live so they can stay as part of their wider communities.
All homes must register with Ofsted and in order to register as a children’s home, providers are required to undertake a location assessment which must show the steps that have been taken to ensure the location is safe and promotes positive opportunities for children. Ofsted will take a view on whether these requirements have been met.
The department is developing options in regard to planning of children’s homes, including considering the location of new homes and registration requirements.