Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the role of the further education sector in supporting economic recovery following the covid-19 outbreak.

The further education (FE) sector is vital to providing the highly skilled workforce that we need to support economic recovery following the COVID-19 outbreak.

We have therefore provided an extensive range of support to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and retain capacity within the FE sector. This is in addition to the series of wider measures to support employers and employees set out by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 3 April.

Our latest guidance on COVID-19 for the FE sector and all other educational settings is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-schools-and-other-educational-settings.