Yes, of course. I doubt that I will be able to give a response such that the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, will nod and agree that it is a full response. I will endeavour to write to him with a fuller response but the situation at the moment is that we have no plans to cap the number of genuine students who can come to the UK to study, nor to limit an institution’s ability to recruit genuine international students based on its TEF rating or any other basis. I know that the noble Lord’s question was much more detailed than that. The best thing I can do is to meet him offline and/or write a letter giving him a full answer. I am well aware that he is very exercised about this issue, as are a number of other noble Lords in this Chamber.
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In future, being on the OfS register would mean that a provider is approved and recognised. Although registration is voluntary we would expect most providers, whether degree-awarding or validated, to register to have access to the various benefits that registration brings. If new providers had no choice but to operate outside the register, and thus outside effective regulatory oversight, they would be unable to access any student loans from the Student Loans Company. Students may see such providers as more risky and less attractive, thus preventing even high-quality new providers getting a foothold in the market. Let me reassure the Committee that only those which can demonstrate the potential to deliver high-quality provision will be able to register. All providers with access to student loan or public grant funding will need to continue to meet at least the current baseline financial, management, governance and quality requirements.
As the new system is firmly based on risk-based regulation, the OfS and the designated quality body will assess the risks attached to all providers that apply to be on the register, with the ability to attach specific conditions of registration to providers that are directly matched to the level of risk that a provider represents. This will allow the OfS to carefully manage the entry of new providers to the regulated sector, for example by using levers such as the imposition of student numbers. Being registered is therefore intended to be an important indication of recognition. The OfS will have the necessary tools to ensure that those registered maintain high-quality standards or face deregistration. We should expect excellence from all our universities and hold them to the same high standards, rather than focusing on their legal form or their profit or non-profit status. With that more detailed explanation, for which I do not know whether I should apologise, I ask the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, to withdraw his amendment.