Written question asked by Mark Garnier (Conservative) on Monday, 20 October 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 22 October 2025. It was answered by Josh MacAlister (Labour) on Friday, 31 October 2025 on behalf of the Department for Education.

Further Education: Student Wastage

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that further education colleges are able to apply discretion in relation to retaining students who may have been absent from maths or English GCSE lessons.

Answer: Further education colleges can decide to retain students who have been absent from their maths or English lessons, but they will have their future funding allocations reduced by half the national funding rate for every eligible student who is not offered the minimum planned teaching hours. This demonstrates the importance of supporting all students to make progress towards and attain level 2 in English and maths. A provider is permitted to opt out up to 2.5% of their 16- to 19 cohort from this requirement without financial penalty, where it is not appropriate to offer a student the minimum planned teaching hours.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 83274
Session: 2024-26
Grouped for answer: Yes
Subjects: Further education English language GCSE Mathematics Student wastage
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.parliament.uk