Higher Education: Royal Charters

(asked on 15th December 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government which higher education institutions have sought to amend their Royal Charters in each of the past three years; which changes were proposed in each case; and why those institutions made any such proposals.


Answered by
Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay Portrait
Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This question was answered on 24th December 2020

Requests by chartered higher education providers for amendments to their governance arrangements are received and co-ordinated by the Privy Council Office.

The Privy Council Office consults the advisers to the Privy Council, including the Department for Education, in reviewing these requests, in order to gain the necessary advice to inform the Privy Council’s recommendation to Her Majesty on whether Her approval may be given to the chartered bodies’ proposals.

The Privy Council Office records requests it has received, but does not separately identify the changes proposed and the reasons for the request. Each case is treated on its own merits and case papers filed on a unique basis. The Privy Council Office and the department have carried out a preliminary co-ordinated scoping of both of their records, and this has revealed about 40 instances where a case was opened for a chartered body seeking to amend its governance arrangements during the period 2018-20.

To answer the questions raised more fully would take very considerable time and resource to achieve, as the needed information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

However, all higher education provider chartered body amendments which have been approved by Her Majesty in Council can be found at: https://privycouncil.independent.gov.uk/orders/.

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