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Reclassification one year on: Capital, control and confusion

This time a year ago, we discovered that colleges were, after all, in the public sector and had been since 1993. The office for national statistics (ONS) made this declaration, citing an international statistical standard introduced eight years earlier, in 2014.

ONS is a slow and methodical organisation. It looked again at laws passed by Parliament in the 1990s and, because the statistical rules had changed, the ONS national accounts committee changed its mind. No longer private sector, it said. Colleges have been public sector all along.

Unlike ONS, the department for education moved quickly. Within minutes of the ONS announcement, DfE ministers presented a statement to parliament and the education and skills funding agency (ESFA)’s chief executive sent a letter to college principals. Following treasury orders, they introduced a series of new controls on college decisions.

With immediate effect, colleges were ordered to ask for approval on issues like taking out loans, offering financial support to other organisations via guarantees and making voluntary severance payments worth more than three months of salary.

The DfE gave governing bodies a six-month notice period for new approval rules for offering high pay to senior staff, but all other controls started from 29 November 2022. The government only acts this fast when there’s a crisis or when they need to pre-empt bad behaviour. It was an over-reaction and not a good start to a new era.

So, while the rest of the world may remember last November as the ChatGPT launch date, a group of college leaders will remember it as the time when the government created hassle, doubt and unproductive paperwork. In a few cases, this almost derailed long-planned building projects. As the weeks and months passed, DfE and ESFA officials sorted things out, created new forms to fill and invented a process for colleges to borrow from the government instead of banks.

A year on, things have settled down and reclassification is old news.

The rules are in place. They are an irritant but they’re now quite familiar. Discussions in leadership teams have reverted to other challenges.

The rules are in place – an irritant, but quite familiar

The talk at this November’s AoC conference was about novel and contentious technology rather than tedious accounting rules. But college public sector status is now a fact of life, and that won’t be changing soon. ONS made an all-encompassing judgement about colleges and it would require a big reform to change their mind.

There isn’t the political appetite now to comprehensively deregulate colleges and take apart the intervention apparatus piece by piece. With £6 billion in public spending going to the sector and a high profile for skills, it’s hard to think of a scenario in which a future government would make this choice. This leaves the college-DfE relationship in an unsatisfactory state.

Having promised financial freedom in the past, DfE is now the main lender for colleges alongside its roles as majority funder, curriculum promoter, occasional capital project manager, charitable regulator and intervention agent.

Different teams of officials have different tasks but there’s a risk of conflicting messages. College leadership teams retain the most important duties: organising staff, managing courses, talking to employers and addressing student needs. But they do so with an increased list of government instructions.

Meanwhile, colleges now find themselves back in the public sector just at the point when top-down treasury financial control is greatest.

This leaves colleges less certain than ever about future capital funding – not just how much they’ll have but how it will come. At a time when student numbers are rising, there is growing pressure to provide skills for the economy. Where investment is needed to modernise buildings for new uses and new sources of energy, this is an obvious worry.

In the end, independence is a state of mind. Whatever their classification or accounting status, colleges have a social purpose.

The new controls are a responsibility and reclassification has been a distraction but if we let it get in the way of all the things we need to do, we’ll only have ourselves to blame.

‘Milestone’ Ofsted result for arts college

A specialist arts college in Hereford is celebrating a “milestone” achievement after securing top Ofsted marks.

Hereford College of Arts was today awarded ‘outstanding’ grades across the board following a full inspection in October.

The college was previously rated as ‘good’ and has been on an improvement journey since 2011 when it was handed an ‘inadequate’ rating by Ofsted.

It currently has 522 FE learners across two campuses, who study level two and three courses across art and design, music performance and production, performing and production arts, and creative media production and technology.

Inspectors praised learners’ “in-depth knowledge, understanding and creative skills often beyond their level of study”.

The report said this was due to leaders planning a range of activities and events that enrich a “well-thought-through” curriculum.

“Leaders have created a curriculum that consistently and extensively promotes the personal development of learners,” the report added. “Learners are provided with many opportunities that go beyond the curriculum.”

One example is music and performing arts learners getting involved in their community through initiatives such as bringing music into local schools and a concert to support Hereford’s refugee musicians. “As a result, learners are acutely aware of why it is important to contribute actively to society,” the report said.

Teachers were complimented for using project work to set the development of skills into real situations and contexts and taking care to check learners’ understanding of key concepts carefully and effectively.

The watchdog said learners are highly motivated and enthusiastic about their learning and work collaboratively.

The Ofsted report also highlighted that a “very high proportion” of learners progress to the next steps, often going to study at prestigious institutions.

“Learners develop the high-quality skills and knowledge that they need to become successful artists,” it said. “They benefit from highly skilled teachers, technicians and industry practitioners sharing their knowledge and experience.”

Principal Abigail Appleton said: “This report is a milestone for Hereford College of Arts, but we know ‘outstanding’ is a way of travelling and not a destination. Hereford College of Arts is on a journey of continuous improvement and development, committed to serving the needs and ambitions of every individual student, but also to helping develop and serve the community of our city and region and the needs of a changing world.

“I am immensely proud of the whole staff team, all our expert and passionate academic and professional services staff, but also of the students, governors, parents/guardians, colleagues in partner education institutions and the wider community of businesses, other organisations and individuals in Herefordshire and elsewhere who have helped the college achieve this ‘outstanding’ judgement.”

Multiply boosts adult education numbers

Most of the growth in adult FE learners last year was down to Multiply courses, FE Week analysis has found.

New participation statistics released today show that of the 75,300 extra adult learners in education and training in 2022/23, 70 per cent took a course through the prime minister’s maths scheme.

There were just over 1.8 million adult learners in FE and skills in 2022/23, up 5.8 per cent on the year before. While now firmly back to pre-pandemic levels of 2019/20, there were still 1.3 million fewer adult learners in the system than in 2010/11.

This is the first-time participation statistics have been released for a full academic year of the Multiply programme, which was announced by then-chancellor Rishi Sunak in the 2021 spending review and launched the following April.

Sunak committed £ 560 million from the government’s UK shared prosperity fund across three financial years to “transform the lives” of half a million adults with low maths skills.

But the rollout has not gone smoothly.

A planned £100 million online learning platform was shelved and over £30 million of local authoring allocations were handed back to Treasury. Local leaders said they couldn’t spend the money they were allocated because the DfE approved their funding plans mid-year, leaving them with little time to recruit and provide the courses before having to hand that year’s money back.

Today’s data shows that 52,600 adults took part in a Multiply course in England in the 2022/23 academic year. Multiply courses had to be designed to help adults progress to a level 2 maths qualification, rather than provide the qualifications themselves. Nearly all – 96 per cent – of Multiply learners did a course without a level.

Of those learners, 70 per cent were women and just over a third were aged over 45. Of all Multiply enrolments, 69 per cent achieved.

For the first time this year, Multiply learners count towards the overall education and training measure which includes largely classroom-based courses and excludes apprenticeships and community learning.

Education and training student numbers increased by 8.5 per cent in 2022/21 compared to the year before, an increase of 75,300 students, of which 52,600 were Multiply students.

Free courses for jobs slashed advanced learner loans

Demand for level 3 courses under the government’s free courses for jobs policy has grown slightly. In 2022/23, 24,740 enrolments were recorded through the scheme, which provides full funding for certain level 3 qualifications, up from 19,700 the year before.

This brings the total number of enrolments since its launch in April 2021 to 49,220.

Before free courses for jobs was introduced, learners would typically have to take out an advanced learner loan to cover their course fees for level 3 courses, unless they had an entitlement for funding or could cover the costs themselves.

As a result, new figures show the number of students with advanced learner loans has continued to decline to record lows.

There were just 51,440 learners with loans in 2022/23, down from 65,760 the year before. Compared to pre-Covid levels, before free courses for jobs was introduced, the number of advanced learner loan funded students has halved.

DfE has calculated that enrolments on free courses for jobs qualifications are 56 per cent higher than the numbers studying for the same or similar qualifications in 2018/19 before the policy was introduced.

ESOL and community learning on the rise

Today’s statistical release also shows a large increase in the number of ESOL learners to 144,560, up 17 per cent from 2021/22.

A recent FE Week investigation found examples of colleges and adult learning organisations struggling to keep up with demand for ESOL courses from rising numbers of young and adult refugees and asylum seekers.

There was also a small rise in community learning students, which increased by 8 per cent in 2022/23 to 328,690. Much of that rise was down to boosts in family learning and personal and community development learning.

While community learning numbers have just about recovered to pre-pandemic levels, they are still far below earlier years. Over half a million students a year took community learning courses prior to 2018/19.

More adults learning in the North

The North East continues to outperform other regions on adult education participation.

The region has had the highest adult education rate, which looks at participation per 100,000 population, for the sixth year running. For every 100,000 residents, 4,376 adults were in learning in 2022/23. The next best performing region was London, with a participation rate of 3,442 per 100,000, and then the West Midlands, with a participation rate of 3,004.

The East of England region, with a participation rate of 2,103, replaced the South East at the bottom of the list.

Indicative adult education participation rate (per 100,000 population)

Position	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
1	North East (4,112)	North East (3,882)	North East (3,958)	North East (4,376)
2	Yorkshire and The Humber (3,000)	London (2,909)	London (3,225)	London (3,442)
3	London (2,938)	Yorkshire and The Humber (2,909)	West Midlands (2,859)	West Midlands (3,004)
4	West Midlands (2,924)	North West (2,783)	North West (2,836)	North West (2,991)
5	North West (2,813)	West Midlands (2,764)	Yorkshire and The Humber (2,662)	Yorkshire and The Humber (2,929)
6	East Midlands (2,732)	East Midlands (2,610)	East Midlands (2,587)	East Midlands (2,901)
7	South West (2,349)	South West (2,334)	South West (2,169)	South West (2,313)
8	East of England (1,892)	East of England (1,960)	East of England (1,928)	South East (2,115)
9	South East (1,849)	South East (1,894)	South East (1,902)	East of England (2,103)

Source: Department for Education

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 444

Nichola Tasker

Chief Executive Officer, Royal Anniversary Trust

Start date: November 2023

Previous job: Territory Director: Stonehenge & West, English Heritage

Interesting fact: Nichola is a qualified architect and although she’s worked mainly in heritage conservation, she once spent a year in Hong Kong designing skyscrapers

Nikki Davis

Chair, West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges

Start date: November 2023

Concurrent: job CEO and Principal, Leeds College of Building

Interesting fact: Nikki was instrumental in supporting the ‘WOW barn’ built by 300 women, girls, and non-binary people earlier this year. Following training at Leeds College of Building, the group completed a “barn-raising” project in just 24 hours. The barn structure was then used as a venue for three weeks of the Leeds 2023 Year of Culture festival.

Kion Ahadi named as new Federation of Awarding Bodies chief

The Federation of Awarding Bodies has announced Kion Ahadi as its new chief executive.

Ahadi, who has held multiple executive level posts at professional bodies and sector skills councils including The Law Society, ScreenSkills and the Chartered Management Institute, will take the helm from February 5, 2024.

He will replace John McNamara who has led FAB on an interim basis since the departure of Tom Bewick in September.

Alan Woods and Kirstie Donnelly, co-chairs of the membership body for over 120 awarding organisations, said: “Kion’s expertise will strengthen our voice in the sector across the four nations, supporting members as we face continuing challenges from qualifications reform and political uncertainty. We look forward to welcoming Kion to the team in February.”

Ahadi is a data and research expert, having held senior positions at The National Lottery Heritage Fund and innovation think tank Nesta.

A FAB spokesperson said his previous roles have included driving commercial growth, strategy development, policy and successfully leading high-performing teams.

Ahadi was also a board member of Ravensbourne University London and is a science fiction author who published a novel called Exit Darkness, Enter Light in 2012.

He said he was “drawn” to FAB because of its “vision to improve the quality of technical, professional, and vocational education to support social mobility, and change lives”.

“I am deeply passionate about the important role the right skills play in helping build individual confidence, improve workplace productivity and ultimately to support social cohesion,” Ahadi added.

“The role of chief executive presents me with an unmissable chance to work with the ambitious FAB board, National Strategy Forum and with a committed team to provide a first-rate service to the over 260 businesses and thousands of people employed in the UK awarding and assessment industry.

“Together with all our members, we will ensure we successfully seize the opportunities ahead, while successfully navigating the challenges. I am really excited about what we can achieve.”

Hull sixth form college celebrates first Ofsted ‘outstanding’

A sixth form college in Hull with nearly 2,500 students has achieved its first ‘outstanding’ result from Ofsted.

Wyke Sixth Form College last month received its first full inspection in ten years and improved on its previous ‘good’.

The report, published today, praised college leaders for providing students with “an ambitious and challenging curriculum” and said teachers “use a range of useful strategies to help students learn and remember new knowledge”.

The college, which offers over 30 A-level courses, the health T Level and a range of other vocational qualifications, praised students and staff for achieving the outcome.

Paul Britton, principal of Wyke Sixth Form College, said: “I am extremely proud of our students, teachers and support staff for all their hard work and enthusiasm that ensured the college achieved the grade we deserved.”

Inspectors rewarded top ‘outstanding’ grades for each of the main inspection indicators, including quality of education, provision for high-needs learners and leadership and management.

The college was found to have made a ‘reasonable’ contribution to meeting local skills needs, the second highest judgment possible.

Ofsted highlighted that insights from local secondary schools about the backgrounds of their students “influence their curriculum offer” and that employers help to design and implement the curriculum.

“Students benefit from the experience and expertise of employers, which supports them in achieving the skills required for their next steps into employment of further study,” the report said.

Leaders were praised for working with other FE providers locally to share best practices and ensure their education offer was relevant to young people.

“Exceptionally well-behaved” students make “very good progress from their starting points,” according to Ofsted, and achieve “high grades in their qualifications”. The report points out that high-needs students “make progress in line with their peers” and most progress to higher education.

Teachers use assessment “exceptionally well” to check students’ learning and have “very good access to professional development that enhances their pedagogical skills”.

Inspectors also highlighted the college’s tutorial curriculum on healthy relationships, sexual harassment and abuse and consent. As a result, “students can confidently recognise harmful, unacceptable behaviours such as sexual harassment and coercive control.”

This also means students “contribute fully towards maintaining a culture where such behaviours are not tolerated”.

FE Week analysis of recent Ofsted data found that all sixth form colleges are judged ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ compared to 91 per cent of general FE colleges and 71 per cent of independent training providers.

Latest college pay deals revealed

College staff have agreed pay deals of up to 10 per cent at 24 more colleges across the country, the University and College Union (UCU) announced today.

Bolton College has settled on a seven per cent pay uplift and an agreement not to deduct strike pay following three days of strike action earlier this month.

Elsewhere, Tameside College has agreed a 10 per cent increase and staff at South Staffordshire College have accepted a pay deal of 9.5 per cent rise.

The news follows 36 pay deals for the 2023/24 academic year, including seven colleges that called off recent strike action, after settling pay disputes with college bosses.

UCU balloted its members at 90 colleges in September and 30 voted for strike action.

Since the results were announced in October, 60 colleges have agreed a staff pay rise.

Seven colleges are yet to settle their pay disputes. These are: Capital City College Group, Craven College, Croydon College, Farnborough College of Technology, Loughborough College, Myerscough College, Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “After a sustained campaign for better pay and conditions in further education we are proud to announce these latest pay awards, which will go a long way to helping college staff meet the cost-of-living crisis. These hard-won uplifts come off the back of our coordinated strike ballots across England alongside resolute bargaining and negotiating by our members.

“There are now just seven bosses who are shamefully holding and refusing to make an offer acceptable to our members. They urgently need to recognise that staff need manageable workloads and decent pay and get back to the negotiating table to avoid the possibility of further strike action.”

Below are the 24 new pay deals:

Bolton College – 7% and an agreement not to deduct strike pay
Bridgwater and Taunton College – 6.5%
Burnley College – 6.5%
Chesterfield College – 6.5%
Derby College – 6.5%
Halesowen College – 6.5%
Harrow, Richmond & Uxbridge Colleges – 6.5%
Hopwood Hall College – 8.5%
Lambeth College – 6.5%
London South East Colleges – 6.5%
Leicester College – 6.5%
Milton Keynes College – 6.5%
Newham College – 6.5%
North Warwickshire & South Leicestershire College – 6.5%
Northampton College – 6.5% + £1k non-consolidated
Preston College – 7%
Solihull College and University Centre – 6.7%
South Staffordshire College – up to 9.5%
Southport College – 6.5%
Tameside College – 10%
Telford College – 6.5%
Trafford College Group – 6.5%
West Thames College – 7%
Wirral Metropolitan College – 7.5% + £500 non-consolidated

Previously announced pay deals:

Abingdon and Witney – up to 9% plus £500 unconsolidated
Bath College – 6.5%
Bournemouth and Poole College – 6.5%
Brockenhurst College – 6.5%
Burton & South Derbyshire College – 6.5%
Bury College – 8.5%
Calderdale College – 6.5%
Cambridge Regional College (Camre) – 7%
Cheshire College South & West – 6.5%
City of Bristol College – 6.5%
City of Liverpool College – 6.5%
City of Wolverhampton College – 6.5%
Dudley College -6.5%
Ealing, Hammersmith & West London College – up to 7.1%
East Durham College – 6.5%
Exeter College – 6.5%
Furness College – 6.5%
Gloucestershire College – 6.5%
Hugh Baird College – 6.5%
Isle of Wight College – 6.5% + 1% non-consolidated
Leeds College of Building – 7%
Middlesborough College – 6.5%
New College Swindon – 6.5% plus £900 unconsolidated
Nottingham College – up to 7.3%
Petroc – 6.5%
Plymouth College – 6.5%
Runshaw College – 7.52%
South Thames Colleges Group – Average uplift of 7.09% lecturer grades with more for lower paid staff.
Stoke on Trent College – 7%-to over 8%
The Heart of Yorkshire Education Group – 6.5%
Warrington & Vale Royal College – 6.5%
Weymouth College – 6.5%
Wiltshire College – 6.5% to 10%
Windsor Forest Colleges Group – 6.5%
Yeovil College – 6.5%
York College – 6.5%

Higher-level apprenticeships ‘most exposed’ training route to AI advancement

Employees with level 4 and above apprenticeships are in jobs most “exposed” to artificial intelligence (AI) compared to any other training route, according to new Department for Education research.

Jobs in education are also among the top 20 most affected occupations by AI, particularly by the rollout of large language modelling like ChatGPT.

A report published this morning by the DfE’s Unit for Future Skills measures the exposure of UK jobs to AI, rather than distinguishing whether a job will be augmented, aided or replaced by AI.

Researchers found employees who achieved apprenticeships at level 4 or higher are in jobs that will be most impacted by the AI advancement, usually in the accounting, professional services and IT sectors.

The findings are however based on a “novel” dataset and the reference period for the data means it mostly included level 4 and 5 apprenticeship frameworks available before the introduction standards and growth in higher level apprenticeships from 2017 onwards.

The report said that level 4 and level 5 apprenticeships are expected to lead to occupations with more exposure than jobs from level 6 apprenticeships. This is due to the high proportion of apprentice starts on standards such as ‘police constable’ and ‘registered nurse degree’, which would have low AI exposure.

Excluding these two standards would increase the level 6 average exposure to AI far closer to the level 4 exposure score, the report added.

Employees with qualifications at level 3 or below in building and construction, manufacturing technologies, and transportation operations and maintenance are in jobs that are least exposed to AI.

These are the standards most exposed to the progression of AI, and with more than 1,000 starts:

Level 4 business analyst
Level 7 accountancy or taxation specialist
Level 4 associate project manager
Level 3 data technician
Level 3 assistant accountant

Researchers found the insurance and finance sectors will change the most when considering the pace at which AI technologies are developing.

“More recent advancements in AI have been more applicable to software and technologies and either require skills in technical coding or use of specific software as part of the job, e.g. accountancy and finance,” the report said.

Conversely, industries least exposed to AI are environments that have more manual work and lower wages, which reduces the incentive to automate. These jobs include roofers, roof tilers and slaters; plasterers; and steel erectors, and sports players (as an outlier).

“Occupations requiring a lower level of education tend to be more manual and often technically difficult roles, which have already seen extensive changes due to developments in technologies, and it is unlikely to be cost effective to apply further automation,” research said.

The top three most affected jobs, according to the research, are management consultants and business analysts, financial managers and directors and charted and certified accountants.

Education advisers and school inspectors placed 14th on the top 20 list of most affected occupations.

Meanwhile, the data shows female students are also in training which leads to more exposure to AI in jobs than males.

There is also a geographical difference in the AI impact on occupations. Workers in London and the south east have the highest exposure to AI across any geographical area of the UK, and the north east has least exposure to AI.

This is due to London having a higher proportion of professional occupations, including programmers, financial managers, and IT professionals.

‘Hallucinations’ found as AI summarises LSIPs

The government also published an evaluation report from an eight-week pilot that tested the use of AI on local skills improvement plans, which have been produced for 38 areas of England led by employer representative bodies.

Each report is around 30 pages long and contains vast amounts of intelligence regarding skills needs described in a variety of ways including sectors, occupations or cross-cutting/transferable skills, proposed local changes to help address the skills needs, and the operation of the DfE’s skills policies.

The AI pilot aimed to summarise each report in a single page, and researchers found 75 per cent were accurate with some lacking “key” details.

There was also some evidence of “hallucinations” – described in the report as a “phenomenon” where an AI model produces a confident response that is not based on real data or events – across at least three of the 38 LSIP summaries.

When asked whether they or their team would be likely to use the summaries in their work, the majority of employer representative bodies said this was “unlikely or unsure”.

The report said to produce a library of one-page, accurate and consistent summaries to provide a quick and easy overall impression of local needs and provide a reference for policy queries, there will need to be “further manual work to redraft and bring in ERBs’ comments”.

Minimum service level proposals: Everything colleges need to know

The government is pushing ahead with legislation to limit the impact of strike action in colleges.

New regulations have been proposed that would allow colleges to require staff to work during strikes so priority groups of students can still attend classes.

Education secretary Gillian Keegan first floated minimum service levels (MSL) last month and opened talks with unions for a voluntary agreement that would avoid legislation.

However, “not enough progress” was made, according to DfE, so powers under The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 will now be used to bring in regulations to limit disruption in education on strike days.

The department said that ten days of strike action by the University and College Union (UCU) and nine days by the National Education Union (NEU) took place in further education in the last academic year.

Further education and sixth form colleges will be in scope of the new rules, as well as the specially designated institutions.

Independent training providers and specialist post-16 institutions are not in scope as they are deemed at low risk of strike disruptions.

Keegan said: “Keeping children in school is my number one priority. Last year’s school strikes were some of the most disruptive on record for children and parents with 25 million cumulative days lost, alongside the strike action that badly affected students in colleges and universities.

“We cannot afford a repeat of that disruption – particularly as young people continue to catch up from the pandemic.

“Whilst I know many schools and colleges worked really hard to keep children and young people in face-to-face education during strikes, we must make sure that approach is applied in every school, in every area of the country.”

Colleges choose minimum staffing levels

Under the proposals, college leaders can choose to issue a work notice ahead of a strike which would list the staff needed to deliver a minimum level of service.

Staff that can be named in a work notice can include leadership, teachers and lecturers, teaching assistants, safeguarding leads, administration staff and other non-teaching staff.

The regulations will not tell college leaders how many staff they must direct to work during strikes, but they will specify which groups of students should be protected from disruption.

Priority student groups

The department is proposing that young people defined as vulnerable, students due to take exams and assessments (excluding apprenticeship end-point assessments), and children of critical workers be prioritised.

Students who are looked after by their local authority, are aged 25 and under with an EHCP, have a child protection or child in need plan, and/or receive special educational needs support will count as vulnerable under the MSL regulations.

Also on the priority list would be students due to take exams or formal assessments in the same academic year strike action takes place. This includes assessments for GCSEs, A levels, T Levels and other vocational and technical qualifications.

Apprentices however will not be included in this priority cohort. This is because strike action has a “limited risk” to the delivery of end point assessments.

The final group of students to be prioritised under MSL rules will be children of critical workers, such as health and social care workers, transport workers and certain education roles.

But for colleges to prioritise the attendance of those students, it is proposed that both parents or guardians must be critical workers, or that a single parent in a household is a critical worker.

For students not prioritised for attendance on a strike day, the DfE said it would “expect every effort” to provide teaching remotely.

There are also proposals to require colleges to implement rotas so that all students can receive some face-to-face education during strike action lasting five college days or more.

The same groups of priority students have been suggested for primary and secondary schools, and a separate proposal in the consultation would prioritise the attendance of all primary school pupils during a strike.

The consultation also floats introducing minimum service levels in universities for the first time, though that would be subject to a further consultation.

The consultation closes on January 30, 2024.