Higher Education (Transparency Condition and Financial Support) (England) Regulations 2018 — House of Lords, 2018-07-24
Topic: Education
James Younger (Conservative, Centre-right): If the noble Lord will allow me to finish the speech, we can have the debate then, and I will certainly bear in mind the point that he made The consultation, which is part of a wider consultation on the OfS work on access and participation, is intended to be published at the end of August, and consultation events will be held during September, with findings available early in 2019. The implementation of the duty through these regulations will help ensure that we can make further progress on the access and success of disadvantaged students, as well as supporting informed choice for all On the second part of these regulations, Section 39 of HERA, these powers allow the OfS to provide financial support for higher education. These funding powers broadly replicate the funding powers conferred by Section 65 of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 on HEFCE, but have been expanded so that the OfS can fund any eligible higher education provider. Eligible providers in this new system are those subject to a cap on the fees they can charge, and thus are in the approved fee cap part of the OfS register. Such financial support is important because it gives the OfS the ability to provide financial support to providers to support a range of different delivery models, such as part-time, and to promote student choice, competition and value for money. It also permits the OfS indirectly to fund qualified schools, colleges or other institutions that are connected to an eligible higher education provider Furthermore, these powers ensure that the OfS can continue to provide funding for subjects which cost more to teach than can be met solely from tuition fees, such as those science and medicine courses that are so crucial to the economic and social future of the country. These powers also make it possible for the OfS to provide funding to incentivise and support providers’ work on widening participation or to meet the unavoidable costs of small and specialist provision, such as performing arts courses I turn to an issue involving the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, which has drawn the special attention of both Houses to this statutory instrument in its 30th report. It has stated that there is doubt that there are adequate vires for the regulations. I appreciate that some of what follows may seem rather technical. However, it is important that I put the Government’s interpretation of the relevant provisions on the record, given the strength of the committee’s views Before turning to the detail—which is important—I want to be absolutely clear that I greatly appreciate the invaluable work the Joint Committee does in holding the Government to account for the secondary legislation that they produce. I am especially grateful for the clear way the committee has expressed its views in its recent report and, indeed, for the extensive engagement between its officials and my own during the drafting of these regulations The committee’s conclusion, as I understand it, is on the basis that the regulations involve subdelegation to the Office for Students and that this is not adequately authorised by the parent Act. Having carefully considered the concerns raised by the committee, and having again consulted those who drafted the provisions, the department respectfully disagrees. The Government’s view has always been that the Act was deliberately designed to enable regulations to refer specifically to named categories of registered provider, as created by the OfS In technical terms, that was achieved by the inclusion of a specific provision—Section 119(5)(d), which states that regulations made under HERA may, "include provision framed by reference to matters determined or published by the OfS (whether before or after the regulations are made)" The division of the register into different categories is then expressed by the Act to be precisely such a matter that the OfS "determines". That is clear if one reads the words of Section 3(2), which uses the word "determines" when it gives the OfS the power to divide the register into categories.