Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether mechanisms are in place to provide compensation to higher education providers in cases where regulatory penalties imposed by the Office for Students are overturned by the courts.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator for higher education in England and operates within the legal framework set out in the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. Where the OfS takes regulatory action against a registered higher education (HE) provider, the provider has the right to make representations and to challenge that decision, including through the courts.

Where a court finds that a regulatory decision has been made unlawfully, the decision, including any associated monetary penalty, may be overturned.

There is no automatic mechanism operated by the department or the OfS to provide compensation to HE providers in such circumstances. As with other public law decisions, any matters relating to costs or damages would be determined by the courts.