My Lords, the transparency duty has generated much debate in both Houses and I am pleased to note that there is an appetite for further transparency to be brought to higher education as a whole. Indeed, this Bill and our accompanying reforms will mean that more information than ever before is published and made available to students. I thank the noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace, for his engagement with the Bill. Let me assure him that I have reflected carefully on the comments he made in Committee, including those of adding attainment as one of the life cycle points in the transparency duty. We did respond to his suggestion and I was pleased to table an amendment on Report which will require higher education providers to publish data on attainment broken down by gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic background, something which the noble Baroness, Lady O’Neill, has just referred to. This will mean that the whole student life cycle is covered by the transparency duty and will support its focus on equality of opportunity.
I would like to take a moment to reassure the noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace, about the consultation. We will be setting out our expectations for the consultation in our first guidance to the Office for Students. That guidance will be issued before the OfS comes into being in April 2018, so there is no question but that it is definitely a priority.
Let me also make the important point that the transparency duty is focused on widening participation. We have been at pains to balance the need for greater transparency on admissions and performance against the robustness of the available data and burdens on providers. This means that we have prioritised those areas where a renewed emphasis on widening participation will have the most impact. However, we have continued to listen and respond. The noble and learned Lord tabled further amendments on Report and I was grateful for the further opportunity to discuss this important issue. I was delighted to make a firm commitment in response to the points raised, which I will reiterate.
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We will ask the OfS to consult on what other information should be published by institutions in the interest of widening access and participation. While the
duty must remain balanced and proportionate, it is clear that greater transparency on characteristics such as age is desirable to support equality of opportunity through widening participation.
The noble and learned Lord has made a good case for the inclusion of age as a characteristic and I am sympathetic to his aims. Although I cannot pre-empt the consultation, I am prepared to say from the Dispatch Box that we fully anticipate that age will be part of the information the OfS will ask institutions to publish. In addition to age, we will also ask the OfS to consult on whether information on the other protected characteristics should also be published by providers, in line with the comments that the noble and learned Lord and other Peers so helpfully made at earlier stages. I also reassure noble Lords that we will ask the OfS to consult on whether information on the other protected characteristics should also be published by providers in line with the comments the noble and learned Lord so helpfully made. This means that we would balance the need for greater transparency with being mindful of the comparability of the data and burdens on providers.
The consultation will not be limited to the protected characteristics. In this way, a much broader range of potential information can be considered, as the noble and learned Lord has previously called for. Universities will be expected to respond to the outcome of the consultation as part of their access and participation plan arrangements. It is precisely because we have listened to the points on other characteristics that are also important that I do not believe it is right that we introduce one further characteristic at this stage. Many noble Lords, including the noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace, my noble friend Lord Lucas, the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, and the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, have spoken on this. Given the good cases that have been made for numerous other characteristics, introducing just this one at this stage could suggest that we are prioritising mature learners over other groups of students for whom noble Lords have so eloquently argued, such as care leavers or disabled students. That is not the case.
We have listened and committed to look at what other information we would like providers to publish through a consultation by the OfS. We believe that this must be looked at in the round rather than in a piecemeal fashion. Through the consultation, all stakeholders will be able to have their voices heard. Let us allow the consultation to run and ensure that all these characteristics are given equal consideration. However, we fully anticipate that age will be part of the information that the OfS asks institutions to publish through their access and participation arrangements.
I hope I have reassured the noble and learned Lord that we have listened very carefully throughout the passage of the Bill and have responded with not only an amendment to the Bill, but a clear commitment to consult on what other information we would expect providers to publish. I value the contributions that noble Lords have made on this and it is clear that there are many characteristics to consider through the consultation. In the light of my reassurances that this
consultation is expected to include age, I respectfully ask the noble and learned Lord to withdraw his amendment.