Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, further to the Answer of 9 May 2018 to Question 139972, on Disabled Students' Allowances, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of students in receipt of disabled students’ allowance who made a contribution to the cost of computer hardware in each academic year since 2015-16.

From 2015 to 2016, 23,400 students, of 58,900 full-time undergraduate students, were in receipt of Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) equipment allowance.

From 2016 to 2017, provisional figures suggest that 19,700 students, of 54,900 full-time undergraduate students, were in receipt of equipment allowance. This information is available from the Statistical First Release: https://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/financial-support-awarded/england-higher-education.aspx

The figures include all years of study of full-time students in receipt of equipment allowance. Only those who started study in 2015 to 2016 or later had to contribute to the cost of their equipment.

The department does not hold data centrally on the number and proportion of students who have made a contribution to the cost of DSA-recommended equipment. It would incur disproportionate cost to obtain the requested information.