Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the total amount of money paid from the public purse to Pearson each year in England for the examination and award of accredited qualifications.

The department approves qualifications for funding. This includes a range of Pearson qualifications. Education and training providers receive funding from the department to deliver qualifications from this approved list. They decide which of the qualifications on the list they wish to deliver and enter arrangements with individual awarding organisations, including Pearson. This includes payment of fees.

The department does not fund awarding organisations directly for the provision and awarding of qualifications. The department did, exceptionally during the COVID-19 pandemic, provide some direct funding to awarding organisations to support them with appeals costs and any autumn series losses they made in relation to 2021 qualifications. This enabled awarding organisations to increase rebates to schools and colleges.

The department does not have access to, nor collect information on how much income Pearson receive from education and training providers who deliver their qualifications. Pearson offer a range of qualifications and operate a range of fee structures depending on the nature of the qualification and their arrangements with individual centres. It is therefore not possible to estimate the total amount of money paid from the public purse to Pearson each year.