Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what safeguards her Department proposes that the Office for Students should implement to prevent the abuse of student loan funding by private higher education providers in respect of new private providers who will be eligible to offer courses under the provisions of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017.

All higher education providers are autonomous and privately run. This includes Higher Education Funding Council for England funded higher education institutions and alternative providers, which can be designated for student support purposes by the department. At the same time, some privately run institutions may be subject to obligations imposed on public authorities (e.g. the Freedom of Information Act 2000). As a result of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, the Office for Students (OfS) will regulate all registered English higher education providers through its regulatory framework, which is currently being consulted on.

As the market regulator, the OfS will act swiftly and decisively where the interest of the student and the taxpayer is at risk at any registered provider of Higher Education. The OfS will undertake rigorous checks before a provider may join the register and access public funds as well as risk-based ongoing monitoring of providers. It will have a range of powers and responses which it will employ at a sector and individual provider level, as appropriate and proportionate, both to prevent fraud and to act when fraud is suspected.

Where necessary, the OfS will be able to, on obtaining a Magistrates’ warrant, use powers of entry and search to investigate suspected serious breaches of a provider's OfS registration or funding conditions. The OfS will operate a new regulatory framework, which is currently being consulted on, and will act proportionately, focusing its resources to ensure that regulatory action is targeted where necessary.