Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 18 June 2026 to Question 9022, on Education: Equality, whether universities' admissions policies will be deemed to be a decision of a strategic nature under the socio-economic duty provisions.

The socio-economic duty (SED) applies only to specified public authorities when they make decisions of a strategic nature about how to exercise their functions. Universities are autonomous institutions and are responsible for their own admissions decisions. As universities are not listed bodies for the purposes of the SED, their admissions policies would not be deemed decisions of a strategic nature under those provisions.