Financial sustainability of the higher education sector in England

This is a House of Commons Committee report, with recommendations to government. The Government has two months to respond.

Eighth Report of Session 2022–23

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Contents

Introduction

Universities and other higher education providers are autonomous institutions with a high degree of financial as well as academic independence. They are free to conduct commercial activities in addition to teaching and research. For a provider to access government funding for research or teaching, however, or for its students to receive government tuition fee and maintenance loans, it must be registered by the Office for Students (the OfS), the sector regulator. The Department for Education (the Department) is responsible for setting higher education policy and for the overall regulatory framework for the sector, and sponsors the OfS. In July 2021, there were 254 higher education providers in England registered with the OfS, excluding further education and sixth-form colleges, educating an estimated 2.3 million students. Of these, 1.8 million were from the UK, and 1.6 million were undergraduates. The total income of higher education providers in 2019/20 was £36.1 billion, 36% of which came from public sources.

Conclusions and recommendations

1. We are not convinced that the OfS has made sufficient progress in getting a grip on the long-term systemic challenges facing the sector and individual providers, meaning that financial pressures risk harming students’ experience of university. There are systemic, long-term pressures on providers’ finances. Some of the underlying factors, including pension fund deficits (and predicted rises in employer contributions), inflation and rising costs, a continuing freeze in the cap on student fees rising more quickly than income, the impact of changes to loan repayment terms and further uncertainties arising from the impact of changes to loan repayment terms and potential policy reforms following consultation on, for example, minimum entry requirements. The OfS considers that the financial sustainability of the sector appears more stable than it did at the start of the pandemic, but accepts that risks remain. The OfS relies heavily, although not exclusively, on financial metrics to identify risks to providers’ financial sustainability and has designed a regulatory approach that does not involve routine discussion with individual providers. However, the OfS currently lacks an integrated model that it can use to understand in a systematic way the combined effects of different pressures—such as changes in different costs, income streams or student numbers—on the sector and on individual institutions, although it told us that it is developing a model to allow it to do so in a more sophisticated way. Without these insights, it risks lacking the information needed to spot, and act on, early signs of distress in vulnerable providers. It also has an incomplete picture of the experience of students. For example, the National Student Survey only covers final-year undergraduates and so the OfS does not have a picture of the experiences of students earlier in their degrees. The OfS similarly does not yet fully understand new issues, such as the impact of hybrid teaching. Some providers do not believe that the OfS has all the information it needs to put financial data into context.

Recommendation: The OfS should write to us by the end of July 2022, in line with the academic year-end, setting out the actions it will take to increase its understanding of the sector and pressures on providers – and how it will demonstrate to universities and students that it has done so.

2. Despite a background of deteriorating financial health of an increasing number of providers, the Department is not effectively holding the OfS to account. The Department is responsible for the overall regulatory framework of the sector and for holding the OfS to account. The OfS’s role includes protecting students’ interests from the consequences of financial risk in higher education providers which could adversely affect students. The financial sustainability of the sector has been declining since before the pandemic, evidenced most obviously by the fact that the number of providers with an in-year deficit increased from seven (5%) in 2015/16 to 80 (32%) in 2019/20. Of these 80 providers, 17 had been in deficit for the past two years and a further 20 for three years or more. The OfS does not, however have a complete set of measures by which its performance can be judged. Of the 26 performance indicators the OfS sets out on its website, eight are still in development or have incomplete performance information and a further 11 indicators do not yet have associated targets. Complete information is available for just seven indicators, giving an inadequate picture of performance. The Department asserts that it is not complacent and has committed to reviewing the set of performance metrics and ways to measure them, by the summer. Furthermore, the OfS does not ask providers for structured feedback on its own performance as a regulator.

Recommendation: Working with the OfS, the Department should establish a complete set of robust, published performance measures and targets, including structured feedback from providers, and use these to hold the OfS to account for its effectiveness.

3. Protections for students, in the event of providers facing financial distress, are not strong enough. The OfS requires providers to have a student protection plan in place to address the risk of continuity of study for its students, but it has identified common weaknesses in them – including over-optimism about risks and weak refund and compensation policies. When initially registering providers, the OfS approved a number of student protection plans that it considered inadequate, so as not to delay registrations. During the pandemic, it found that it needed greater powers to intervene more quickly, and introduced a new condition of registration from April 2021 allowing it to issue directions to universities it considers at material risk of failure. However, the process of implementing a student protection plan, which the OfS described to us, appears to be reactive.

Recommendation: The OfS should prioritise ensuring that all providers’ published student protection plans are fit for purpose and sufficiently clear for students to make confident, well-informed decisions about the protections universities are promising them.

4. We are concerned that the financial sustainability of some providers is being put at risk by their heavy dependence on their ability to continue growing overseas student numbers. Many providers are already highly dependent on cross-subsidy to make up deficits in publicly funded teaching and research. Much of this subsidy comes from income from overseas students’ fees; in 2019–20, there were more than 340,000 overseas students at English providers, almost half of whom came from China or India. Many providers’ medium- and long-term financial forecasts assume continued growth in student numbers, particularly overseas students. The OfS monitors providers’ forecasts and has in the past found their student number projections to be over-optimistic. There are also risks associated with an over reliance on international recruitment which may not align well with the UK’s wider geopolitical interests. The Department asserts that it is aware of such risks and is encouraging the sector to diversify in terms of where providers recruit their students from. There are also cross-government considerations, such as how student recruitment is affected by, and potentially at odds with, the Home Office’s plans to control migration. The Department recognises that it is a very competitive market and that there are many countries around the world seeking to bring in more international students, for exactly the same reasons that UK providers are.

Recommendation: The Department, drawing on OfS analysis as appropriate, should set out what it considers to be the risks to achieving the continued forecast growth in overseas student numbers universities are relying on for their future financial security, and explain how it is mitigating those risks.

5. Student satisfaction with the value for money of their courses is at a worryingly low level. One of the OfS’s four regulatory objectives is that students receive value for money. OfS says that students should receive the academic experience they were promised by their provider and their interests as consumers should be protected before, during and after their studies. Overall student satisfaction has been consistently over 80%, but fell to 75% in the pandemic- one of the main contributing factors being dissatisfaction with learning resources required by lockdown restrictions. The proportion of students who thought their course was value for money is much lower and dropped from 38% in 2020 to 33% in 2021, with more than half saying it was not value for money. The OfS acknowledges that students’ view that they are not getting value for money is a cause for concern. The OfS believes that quality of provision is central to how students regard value for money, and asserts that quality is one of its top three concerns. The OfS says that it is looking at quality issues closely and that working with the universities to ensure that, even on oversubscribed courses, quality remains good.

Recommendation: The Department and the OfS should set out what action the OfS is taking to improve students’ satisfaction with value for money, including the OfS’s assessment of the impact of hybrid teaching on students’ experience and what progress has been made in addressing the causes of dissatisfaction.

6. The Department failed to adequately assess the current and future financial impacts on providers of disruption to A-level assessments. The use of locally assessed grades in place of A-level exams during the COVID-19 pandemic led to substantial grade inflation in 2020 and 2021. This meant that more students were able to take up places at high-tariff providers, but left many medium- and low-tariff and specialist providers undersubscribed, who have therefore lost expected fee income. The Department had anticipated the likely impact of locally assessed grades on providers that would be oversubscribed and that could require additional funding for high-cost courses. But it had not considered the impact on those providers that would become undersubscribed. Being undersubscribed causes financial pressure on providers for an extended period, as most courses last at least three years. At the same time, oversubscribed providers risk not being able to maintain the quality of provision they have promised their students as they may not have sufficient teaching facilities or student accommodation.

Recommendation: Learning from the disruption to the higher education market during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department and the OfS should model and review the financial impacts on providers of changes to the number and profile of domestic students over the short, medium and longer terms.

1 Oversight of financial sustainability in the higher education sector

1. On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Education (the Department) and the Office for Students (the OfS) on the financial sustainability of the higher education sector in England.1

2. Universities and other higher education providers are autonomous institutions with a high degree of financial as well as academic independence. For a provider to access government funding for research or teaching, however, or for its students to receive government tuition fee and maintenance loans, it must be registered by the OfS, the sector regulator. The Department is responsible for setting higher education policy and for the overall regulatory framework for the sector. The OfS is sponsored by, and accountable to, the Department.2

3. In July 2021, there were 254 higher education providers in England registered with the OfS, excluding further education and sixth-form colleges, educating an estimated 2.3 million students. Of these, 1.8 million were from the UK, and 1.6 million were undergraduates. The total income of higher education providers in 2019/20 was £36.1 billion, 36% of which came from public sources. The financial sustainability of the sector has been declining since before the pandemic and the OfS recognises that providers face ongoing pressures. The number of higher education providers with an in-year deficit increased from seven out of 133 (5%) in 2015/16 to 80 out of 247 (32%) in 2019/20. The number with an in-year deficit of 5% or more of income has also grown each year, from one out of 133 (1%) in 2015/16 to 37 out of 244 (15%) in 2019/20. This trend is still clear after excluding volatility caused by fluctuations in pension revaluations and other relevant accounting adjustments relating to pensions. In 2019/20, of the 80 providers with an in-year deficit, 17 had been in deficit for the past two years and a further 20 for three years or more.3

4. The OfS has very broad objectives: to help students access higher education; ensure they have a high-quality experience of higher education; protect their interests while they study; make sure they can progress to employment or further study; and ensure they receive value for money. Should higher education providers become financially unsustainable or unviable, students would be adversely affected in all these areas. Financial pressure could increase the risk of providers failing, closing campuses or courses, reducing the quality of teaching, or limiting access.4

What the OfS does to understand providers’ financial sustainability

5. There are increasing financial pressures on higher education providers, including:

  • those arising from the COVID-19 pandemic;5
  • rising energy costs, which will particularly impact on universities that do a lot of research;6
  • increasing pension costs and the expectation that these will rise further;7
  • an ongoing freeze in the tuition fee cap since 2017/18 – both the Russell Group and Universities UK told us in their written submissions that there had been a 17% cut in the value of the fee between 2012/13 and 2021/22;8
  • the potential impact of changes to student fee repayment terms, for example for lower earning graduates,9 and
  • uncertainty arising from other upcoming policy reforms on which the Department is consulting, for example, the introduction of minimum entry requirements.10

6. We asked the OfS whether the financial risk to the sector or institutions was greater than it was five years ago. The OfS told us that, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was very concerned about the consequential financial risk, which it would have assessed as being “extremely high”. However, because of the way in which providers managed the challenges facing the sector during the pandemic, and the government support available, it was no longer expecting large numbers of university failures, despite significant remaining pressures.11 While the OfS has analysed individual factors affecting providers’ financial sustainability, it does not yet have an integrated model with which it can assess the combined impacts of ongoing, multiple and systemic risks to financial sustainability, such as changes in recruitment, different costs and demographics. It told us that it was investing in the development of a much more sophisticated model, and that this was a priority for this calendar year.12

7. The OfS carries out the annual National Student Survey to collect students’ views on, for example, the quality of teaching and learning they are getting. The 2021 survey ran from January to April and was open only to final-year undergraduates.13 The OfS commissions a separate survey each year, seeking students’ views on the value for money of their courses. It also engages with the National Union of Students and listens to a panel of student representatives – the chair of which also sits on the OfS’s own Board.14 We asked the OfS why the National Student Survey was restricted to final-year students, and whether this meant that it missed out on the opportunity for some early warning signals from other students. The OfS responded that it considered that students would have a better sense of the overall performance of the university and their experience in the final year. But it also admitted that it was missing out on early warning signals from other students and said it would consider widening the survey to include other students.15

8. We asked the OfS whether satisfaction rates among students had changed as a result of the pandemic, and what the impact of hybrid learning had been on students. The OfS told us that, following the widespread use of online provision during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was undertaking work to better understand the impact of hybrid provision—a mix of face-to-face and online provision—on students, what is going on in the sector and what ‘good’ looks like. It noted that while there might be some lag in identifying trends through the National Student Survey, its work on hybrid provision would give it evidence “that is much more real-time”. It expected this work to be completed by summer 2022.16

9. To create and maintain its regulatory independence, and seeking to minimise regulatory burden, the OfS does not maintain close ongoing contact with individual providers it considers at low risk. The OfS explained that it collected “a basic core from every registered university and college” but beyond this it considered its approach was “proportionate to the particular circumstances they face”.17 The National Audit Office reported that the sector bodies and providers it had spoken to told it that, because the OfS had not routinely spoken to most providers, they were not confident that the OfS had all the information it needed to contextualise the financial data it collects. The OfS asserted that it did not recognise that criticism in relation to financial data, as opposed to information about quality. It accepted that there were issues around the burden on providers of collecting this data, and that it was doing a lot of work on that, but that “in terms of us needing this core data, the case is unequivocal”.18

The Department’s oversight of the OfS’s performance

10. In addition to setting higher education policy, the Department is responsible for the overall regulatory framework for the sector.19 It holds the OfS to account through quarterly performance reviews with the OfS’s leaders and has regular discussions about the performance indicators which the OfS uses to measures its own performance.20

11. The National Audit Office reported that the OfS does not yet have a complete and transparent set of performance measures to demonstrate its own performance as a regulator.21 Of the 26 performance indicators the OfS sets out on its website, eight are still in development or have incomplete performance information and a further 11 indicators do not yet have associated targets. We asked the Department how it was able to hold the OfS to account without the management information that such a set of measures would provide. The Department and the OfS recognised that development of the indicators had not been a priority during the COVID-19 pandemic, but told us that it was not something they were complacent about. They told us that the measures would be reviewed in line with the OfS’s new strategy and would be in a better place by summer 2022.22

12. The OfS assured us that it consulted widely on changes to its regulatory framework and holds meetings and workshops with stakeholder groups. However, there is no routine way in which it captures structured stakeholder feedback through which it can gather the views of regulated bodies on its own performance. It told us that it planned to ask for more systematic feedback through a survey, which will provide comparable data against which it can benchmark itself each year.23

Providers’ financial dependence on overseas students’ tuition fees

13. Publicly funded teaching and research make a loss across the sector once the full economic costs of those activities are taken into account. Providers’ financial viability depends on subsidising these activities from the surplus generated by non-publicly funded teaching – primarily fees from overseas students.24 The Department told us that this was a very competitive market, and estimated that international students contributed some £17 billion to GDP.25

14. The medium- and long-term financial sustainability of some providers is heavily dependent on continued growth in student numbers, particularly overseas students. In 2018, providers forecasted that the number of non-EU students would grow by 29% between the 2019/20 and 2024/25 academic years, compared with a 17% increase in UK student numbers and a 31% fall in the number of EU students. The OfS told us that it monitored providers’ student number projections closely to check whether they were credible. Having previously found a degree of over-optimism in some providers’ forecasts, it told us that it continued to encourage caution while recognising that there are reasons why providers might feel more confident about recruitment over the next few years. It explained that this included: an increase in the number of 18-year-olds because of demographic changes; and evidence on international student flows, which do not show signs of abating.26

15. We received written evidence from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), which told us that it also projected growth in recruitment of both domestic 18-year-olds and international students between now and 2026. UCAS projected that the 2026 admissions cycle would have one million applicants compared with just over 700,000 in 2021. About 40% of this increase would be attributable to growth in demand from UK 18- year-olds (driven by increases in both application rates and the population), with the remaining 60% driven by continued growth in demand from mature and international students.27 The OfS assured us that it would be checking whether, if projections do not materialise, providers still have the ability to remain financially viable and sustainable.28 The Department told us that, among its main international competitors, the UK was the only country that significantly grew its international student recruitment during the pandemic. The Department recognised, however, that it is a very competitive market and that there are many countries around the world seeking to bring in more international students, for exactly the same reasons that UK providers are.29

16. In 2019–20, more than 340,000 overseas students came from 204 countries worldwide (excluding the EU and UK): 35% of those came from China and 14% from India.30 We received written evidence from Universities UK that this income stream may be subject to pressure from wider concerns, with overreliance on certain countries that may leave UK universities vulnerable to competition and concerns about global affairs.31 The Department told us that it was seeking to encourage providers to diversify the range of countries from which they recruit, and has identified five priority markets which it was working to develop: Indonesia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and India. It also said that it encourages providers to think about whether there might be broader political or other risks associated with becoming over-dependent on students from a particular country.32

17. The Department described the responsibility for maximising international student participation as being a shared one between government as a whole and individual institutions. We expressed concern about potential tensions between the aims of the Department, along with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, to see more students coming from overseas and the efforts of the Home Office to control migration. The Department told us that it worked closely with the Home Office on visa arrangements to ensure that overseas students can come and study and also have opportunities after studying. It explained that it also worked with the Department for International Trade to ensure that education opportunities were included in wider trade discussions including, for example, by sending university delegations.33

The impact of disruption to A-level assessments

18. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government moved to a system of locally-assessed grades in place of the usual A-level examinations. This led to significant grade inflation in 2020 and 2021 and meant that many more students than expected were able to take up places at their first-choice providers and on high-tariff courses. This meant that many medium- and low-tariff and specialist providers recruited fewer students in 2021 than they had in 2019, despite a 10.8% overall rise in undergraduate entrant student numbers over the two years.34

19. As most degree courses last three or four years, there is an ongoing negative impact on the income of providers who are unable to recruit enough students to match their forecast numbers.35 Oversubscribed providers can also face adverse financial consequences from exceeding their planned recruitment as domestic students are, overall, loss-making. There are also risks to quality of provision and the overall student experience in oversubscribed providers. For example, some have offered students financial incentives to defer entry and some have struggled to provide accommodation for their first-year students.36

20. The Department told us it had not modelled the impact on providers of grade inflation in 2020 because nobody had anticipated the last-minute decision to use locally assessed grades. For the 2020/21 academic year, it provided an additional £10 million to support oversubscribed providers that were teaching high-cost subjects, and up to £10 million capital funding to help them expand capacity. However, neither the Department nor the OfS modelled in advance whether the changes to A-level grades would, by themselves, lead to some providers becoming undersubscribed and what the financial consequences for those providers could be. The National Audit Office reported that many medium- and low-tariff and specialist providers recruited fewer students in 2021 than they had in 2019, despite a 10.8% overall rise in undergraduate entrant student numbers over the two years, and that this created short-and medium-term financial risk.37 The Department told us that it had been challenging for the, typically middle- and lower-tariff, institutions that had ended up being undersubscribed. It explained that there had been some financial impact on those providers, although that impact had not been uniform because it also depended on the local actions taken and the subject profile of each provider. However, the Department asserted that its priority had being making sure it was doing what it believed to be the right thing for students.38 The OfS told us that it was now seeing universities’ financial forecasts starting to return to normal, but that it remained concerned about the quality of provision where courses had been very heavily oversubscribed. The OfS told us it was now looking at this issue closely and working with the universities to ensure that, notwithstanding increased numbers, quality remained good.39

2 Impact on students

Protections for students

21. As a condition of registration, the OfS requires each higher education provider to have in place and publish a student protection plan setting out what it would do to safeguard students’ interests—such as by making arrangements for continuity of study—if it, as an institution, were in difficulty.40 The OfS reported in October 2019 that, when assessing applications for initial registration of providers, it had found student protection plans very variable in quality. Because it believed it was not in students’ interests to delay registration, it nonetheless approved a number of plans that were significantly below the standard it would expect. It identified weaknesses including providers being over-optimistic about the risks they faced, lack of detail about what specific actions providers would take, and weak refund and compensation policies. In the small number of cases where the OfS had required providers to undertake more detailed planning, it had found that existing student protection plans had been the starting point for discussion, rather than a set of actions that could be taken. We asked whether the OfS was now confident that student protection plans are fit for purpose and would adequately protect students. The OfS acknowledged that protections for students did still need further review and told us that it was committed to doing this over the course of the next 12 months as part of its next business plan.41

22. The OfS told us that one of the things it became very aware of during the early days of the pandemic was that it did not have the tools needed to intervene quickly if facing a provider failure. It said that, because addressing that issue was urgent, in early 2020 it consulted quickly and introduced a new regulatory condition, effective from 1 April 2021, which enables it to impose directions on providers it considers at material risk of failure. The OfS described to us examples of the sort of directions it might make, including: requiring a provider to specify what it was doing to protect students’ interests; ensuring that students could transfer to a different institution to complete their studies; complete their intended course of study, or complete their current academic year or term and receive an exit award or credit to recognise their achievements with sufficient evidence retained to enable students to demonstrate the credit they had secured; and ensuring that complaints processes and a compensation scheme were in place.42

23. We asked the OfS how it made sure that providers had the relevant preparations in place to access support in the event that their financial sustainability was under threat, since some risks could materialise quite quickly. It described a process of escalating requirements, starting with discussions with the provider when the OfS first had concerns, rather than something that is suddenly triggered. It explained that, as the situation got more serious, the OfS’s expectations would increase and it would ask the provider to put plans in place if they were not already there. The OfS told us that, at the point where the OfS issued a direction, the provider would “just have to do it”.43

Student satisfaction

24. The results of the National Student Survey show that overall student satisfaction was stable at 82–83% between 2017 and 2020, falling to 75% in 2021.44 The OfS measures students’ perception of value for money in a separate survey, which, unlike the National Student Survey, is not restricted to final-year undergraduates. In this survey, the proportion of then-current undergraduates saying that university offered good value for money fell from 38% in 2020 to 33% in 2021, and the proportion saying it did not rose from 48% to 54%.45 We asked the OfS whether it was concerned by these figures. The OfS told us that value for money is one of its four regulatory priorities. It agreed that the proportion of students thinking that their course was value for money was a very low figure and “absolutely” a cause for concern. The OfS assured us that it saw tackling the situation as a priority. It explained that a lot of the OfS’s work would be looking to reverse that, primarily by addressing issues of quality, where students think they are not getting the quality that they deserve.46

25. The OfS told us that it did not have a definition of value for money because it believed that it could mean different things to different people at different times. In 2018 it had commissioned a consortium of student unions to look at what the definition of value for money should be, and had found there were different views. There were some common themes and priorities, of which quality of provision was at the core, but also outcomes for students on graduation.47 It told us that quality was at the heart of what the OfS does and is one of its top three concerns, along with financial viability and sustainability, and access, participation and social mobility.48

26. The OfS suggested to us that students’ satisfaction with their courses and assessments of value for money were also related to their perceptions of what they were getting for the tuition fee. During the pandemic, there were calls for higher education providers to refund a proportion of tuition fees in recognition of the shift to online learning required by lockdown restrictions, and restricted access to laboratories, libraries and other learning resources. Student satisfaction with learning resources had the greatest fall of factors measured between 2020 and 2021. The government’s position was that students ordinarily should not expect any fee refund if they were receiving adequate online learning and support. The government did not define what it meant by ‘adequate’, and students were not consulted on this decision nor on how it affected the value for money they were getting. The NAO found that it was likely, however, that the government’s position reduced financial stress on providers.49

Formal minutes

Wednesday 8 June 2022

Members present:

Dame Meg Hillier

Shaun Bailey

Dan Carden

Peter Grant

Kate Green

Sarah Olney

James Wild

Financial sustainability of the higher education sector in England

Draft Report (Financial sustainability of the higher education sector in England), proposed by the Chair, brought up and read.

Ordered, That the draft Report be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph.

Paragraphs 1 to 26 read and agreed to.

Summary agreed to.

Introduction agreed to.

Conclusions and recommendations agreed to.

Resolved, That the Report be the Eighth of the Committee to the House.

Ordered, That the Chair make the Report to the House.

Ordered, That embargoed copies of the Report be made available, in accordance with the provisions of Standing Order No. 134.

Adjournment

Adjourned till Monday 13 June at 3.30pm


Witnesses

The following witnesses gave evidence. Transcripts can be viewed on the inquiry publications page of the Committee’s website.

Monday 21 March 2022

Susan Acland-Hood, Permanent Secretary, Department for Education; Nicola Dandridge, Chief Executive, Office for Students; Anne Spinali, Director for Higher Education Reform and Funding, Department for EducationQ1–111


Published written evidence

The following written evidence was received and can be viewed on the inquiry publications page of the Committee’s website.

FSE numbers are generated by the evidence processing system and so may not be complete.

1 Coventry University (FSE0004)

2 Institute of Physics (FSE0006)

3 Senior, Carl MBA, PhD (FSE0002)

4 The Russell Group (FSE0003)

5 UCAS (FSE0001)

6 Universities UK (FSE0005)


List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament

All publications from the Committee are available on the publications page of the Committee’s website.

Session 2022–23

Number

Title

Reference

1st

Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Annual Report and Accounts 2020–21

HC 59

2nd

Lessons from implementing IR35 reforms

HC 60

3rd

The future of the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors

HC 118

4th

Use of evaluation and modelling in government

HC 254

5th

Local economic growth

HC 252

6th

Department of Health and Social Care 2020–21 Annual Report and Accounts

HC 253

7th

Armoured Vehicles: the Ajax programme

HC 259

1st Special Report

Sixth Annual Report of the Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts

HC 50

Session 2021–22

Number

Title

Reference

1st

Low emission cars

HC 186

2nd

BBC strategic financial management

HC 187

3rd

COVID-19: Support for children’s education

HC 240

4th

COVID-19: Local government finance

HC 239

5th

COVID-19: Government Support for Charities

HC 250

6th

Public Sector Pensions

HC 289

7th

Adult Social Care Markets

HC 252

8th

COVID 19: Culture Recovery Fund

HC 340

9th

Fraud and Error

HC 253

10th

Overview of the English rail system

HC 170

11th

Local auditor reporting on local government in England

HC 171

12th

COVID 19: Cost Tracker Update

HC 173

13th

Initial lessons from the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic

HC 175

14th

Windrush Compensation Scheme

HC 174

15th

DWP Employment support

HC 177

16th

Principles of effective regulation

HC 176

17th

High Speed 2: Progress at Summer 2021

HC 329

18th

Government’s delivery through arm’s-length bodies

HC 181

19th

Protecting consumers from unsafe products

HC 180

20th

Optimising the defence estate

HC 179

21st

School Funding

HC 183

22nd

Improving the performance of major defence equipment contracts

HC 185

23rd

Test and Trace update

HC 182

24th

Crossrail: A progress update

HC 184

25th

The Department for Work and Pensions’ Accounts 2020–21 – Fraud and error in the benefits system

HC 633

26th

Lessons from Greensill Capital: accreditation to business support schemes

HC 169

27th

Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme

HC 635

28th

Efficiency in government

HC 636

29th

The National Law Enforcement Data Programme

HC 638

30th

Challenges in implementing digital change

HC 637

31st

Environmental Land Management Scheme

HC 639

32nd

Delivering gigabitcapable broadband

HC 743

33rd

Underpayments of the State Pension

HC 654

34th

Local Government Finance System: Overview and Challenges

HC 646

35th

The pharmacy early payment and salary advance schemes in the NHS

HC 745

36th

EU Exit: UK Border post transition

HC 746

37th

HMRC Performance in 2020–21

HC 641

38th

COVID-19 cost tracker update

HC 640

39th

DWP Employment Support: Kickstart Scheme

HC 655

40th

Excess votes 2020–21: Serious Fraud Office

HC 1099

41st

Achieving Net Zero: Follow up

HC 642

42nd

Financial sustainability of schools in England

HC 650

43rd

Reducing the backlog in criminal courts

HC 643

44th

NHS backlogs and waiting times in England

HC 747

45th

Progress with trade negotiations

HC 993

46th

Government preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons for government on risk

HC 952

47th

Academies Sector Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

HC 994

48th

HMRC’s management of tax debt

HC 953

49th

Regulation of private renting

HC 996

50th

Bounce Back Loans Scheme: Follow-up

HC 951

51st

Improving outcomes for women in the criminal justice system

HC 997

52nd

Ministry of Defence Equipment Plan 2021–31

HC 1164

1st Special Report

Fifth Annual Report of the Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts

HC 222

Session 2019–21

Number

Title

Reference

1st

Support for children with special educational needs and disabilities

HC 85

2nd

Defence Nuclear Infrastructure

HC 86

3rd

High Speed 2: Spring 2020 Update

HC 84

4th

EU Exit: Get ready for Brexit Campaign

HC 131

5th

University technical colleges

HC 87

6th

Excess votes 2018–19

HC 243

7th

Gambling regulation: problem gambling and protecting vulnerable people

HC 134

8th

NHS capital expenditure and financial management

HC 344

9th

Water supply and demand management

HC 378

10th

Defence capability and the Equipment Plan

HC 247

11th

Local authority investment in commercial property

HC 312

12th

Management of tax reliefs

HC 379

13th

Whole of Government Response to COVID-19

HC 404

14th

Readying the NHS and social care for the COVID-19 peak

HC 405

15th

Improving the prison estate

HC 244

16th

Progress in remediating dangerous cladding

HC 406

17th

Immigration enforcement

HC 407

18th

NHS nursing workforce

HC 408

19th

Restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster

HC 549

20th

Tackling the tax gap

HC 650

21st

Government support for UK exporters

HC 679

22nd

Digital transformation in the NHS

HC 680

23rd

Delivering carrier strike

HC 684

24th

Selecting towns for the Towns Fund

HC 651

25th

Asylum accommodation and support transformation programme

HC 683

26th

Department of Work and Pensions Accounts 2019–20

HC 681

27th

Covid-19: Supply of ventilators

HC 685

28th

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s management of the Magnox contract

HC 653

29th

Whitehall preparations for EU Exit

HC 682

30th

The production and distribution of cash

HC 654

31st

Starter Homes

HC 88

32nd

Specialist Skills in the civil service

HC 686

33rd

Covid-19: Bounce Back Loan Scheme

HC 687

34th

Covid-19: Support for jobs

HC 920

35th

Improving Broadband

HC 688

36th

HMRC performance 2019–20

HC 690

37th

Whole of Government Accounts 2018–19

HC 655

38th

Managing colleges’ financial sustainability

HC 692

39th

Lessons from major projects and programmes

HC 694

40th

Achieving government’s long-term environmental goals

HC 927

41st

COVID 19: the free school meals voucher scheme

HC 689

42nd

COVID-19: Government procurement and supply of Personal Protective Equipment

HC 928

43rd

COVID-19: Planning for a vaccine Part 1

HC 930

44th

Excess Votes 2019–20

HC 1205

45th

Managing flood risk

HC 931

46th

Achieving Net Zero

HC 935

47th

COVID-19: Test, track and trace (part 1)

HC 932

48th

Digital Services at the Border

HC 936

49th

COVID-19: housing people sleeping rough

HC 934

50th

Defence Equipment Plan 2020–2030

HC 693

51st

Managing the expiry of PFI contracts

HC 1114

52nd

Key challenges facing the Ministry of Justice

HC 1190

53rd

Covid 19: supporting the vulnerable during lockdown

HC 938

54th

Improving single living accommodation for service personnel

HC 940

55th

Environmental tax measures

HC 937

56th

Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund

HC 941


Footnotes

1 C&AG’s Report, Regulating the financial sustainability of higher education providers in England, Session 2021–22, HC 1141, 9 March 2022

2 C&AG’s Report, paras 1, 1.8

3 Q5; C&AG’s Report, paras 2, 2.2

4 C&AG’s Report, para 3

5 Q 19

6 Q 19

7 C&AG’s Report, paras 9, 2.8

8 FSE0003 Financial Sustainability of the higher education sector in England, The Russell Group, 21 March 2022, para 6; FSE0005 Financial Sustainability of the higher education sector in England, Universities UK, 21 March 2022, pages 1–2

9 Qq97–102

10 Qq 96–97; FSE0001 Financial Sustainability of the higher education sector in England, UCAS, 21 March 2022, page 2; FSE0005 Universities UK, 21 March 2022, page 2; C&AG’s Report, para 2.12

11 Q 25

12 Qq 19, 21; C&AG’s Report, para 3.15

13 Qq 33, 72; C&AG’s Report, paras 4.6–4.7

14 C&AG’s Report, paras 4.6, 4.8

15 Qq 72–78

16 Q 33–35, 42–43

17 Q 55

18 Q 55; C&AG’s Report, paras 3.5–3.6

19 C&AG’s Report, para 1.8

20 Qq 45, 50; C&AG’s Report, paras 3.5, 3.25

21 C&AG’s Report, para 16

22 Qq 44–49; Office for Students Strategy 2022 to 2025, Office for Students, 23 March 2022; C&AG’s Report, para 3.25

23 Qq 59–63; C&AG’s Report, para 3.6

24 Q 24; FSE0003 Financial Sustainability of the higher education sector in England, The Russell Group, 21 March 2022, para 28; C&AG’s Report, para 1.12 and Figure 3

25 Q 80

26 Q 5; C&AG’s Report, paras 2.9–2.11 and Figure 8

27 FSE0001 Financial Sustainability of the higher education sector in England, UCAS, 21 March 2022, page 2

28 Q 5

29 Qq 6, 80–81

30 C&AG’s Report, para 2.10

31 FSE0005: Financial Sustainability of the higher education sector in England, Universities UK, 21 March 2022, page 2

32 Qq 6, 8, 11

33 Qq 6–7, 79, 81, 85–86

34 Qq 1–3; Correspondence from Susan Acland-Hood, Permanent Secretary, Department for Education, re PAC hearing on the financial sustainability of higher education providers 21 March 2022, dated 4 April 2022, page 2; C&AG’s Report, para 4.24

35 Q 3; C&AG’s Report, para 4.28

36 Q 4; FSE0003 The Russell Group, 21 March 2022, paras 15, 19; C&AG’s Report para 4.27

37 Qq 1, 4; C&AG’s Report, paras 4.24–4.26 and Figure 12

38 Qq 2–3; Correspondence from Susan Acland-Hood, Permanent Secretary, Department for Education, re PAC hearing on the financial sustainability of higher education providers 21 March 2022, dated 4 April 2022, page 2

39 Q 4

40 Qq 50–51; C&AG’s Report, para 4.2

41 Q 82; C&AG’s Report, paras 4.3–4.4

42 Q 65; Office for Students Regulatory notice 6: Condition C4: Student protection directions; C&AG’s Report, para 4.5

43 Qq 66–67

44 Q 69; C&AG’s Report, para 4.7

45 Qq 33, 69, 71; C&AG’s Report, para 4.8

46 Qq 69, 71

47 Qq 29, 70, 83; C&AG’s Report, para 4.8

48 Qq 69, 83, 95

49 Q69; C&AG’s Report, paras 4.19–4.20 and Figure 11