Lifelong Learning Entitlement

Rating: Delivery confidence for 2025/26 remains Amber. The programme has made steady progress towards launch in 2026/27. The Amber rating is primarily driven by the programme’s inherent complexity, tight and inflexible legislative timelines ahead of launch, capacity pressures within delivery partners, and uneven sector readiness. These risks are ongoing and require careful management. The focus now is on delivering legislation to schedule, maintaining delivery partner capacity and strengthening engagement with providers to secure readiness. Confidence will improve if legislative milestones are met, sector preparedness becomes more consistent, and system testing remains on track. Delay in these areas will place pressure on launch plans given limited contingency.

Schedule: Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's end-date at 25/26-Q4 has been brought forward to 31/03/27. This recognises that the LLE will launch in September 2026 for courses starting in January 2027; after that the programme will transition into BAU operational delivery structures.

Cost: Exempt under Section 22 - Information intended for future publication

Source: NISTA Major Projects Annual Report 2025-26 (data)

Rating: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the Infrastructure Project Authority's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating at 24/25-Q4 remained at AMBER. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ Section 22 - Information intended for future publication.

Schedule: Section 22 - Information intended for future publication

Cost: Section 22 - Information intended for future publication

Source: NISTA Annual Report 2024-25 (data)

Rating: The Infrastructure Project Authority's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating at 23/24-Q4 is Amber. This is primarily due to the following factors. An IPA assurance review in Feb 24 recognised the journey towards the LLE's introduction is ambitious and the programme must ensure all of its constituent parts are functional and operational upon launch. In recognition of the complexity of the programme and the challenges of launching a new system impacting hundreds of thousands of learners, the Conservative Government opted to move to a phased rollout of the LLE from Sep 25, with courses starting from Jan 26.

Schedule: The project's end-date at 23/24-Q4 is 2027-12-31. This is primarily due to the following factors. Compared to 22/23-Q4, the project's end-date changed from 31 December 2025 to 31 December 2027. This is primarily due to the government allowing providers longer to prepare for registration with OfS, which they need to do to access the LLE. In the LLE consultation response, published in March 2023, the Government asked OfS to develop a third category of registration to provide an appropriate approach for smaller providers typically offering level 4 and 5 qualifications. Subject to consultation, this would have included transitional arrangements for providers from 2025 to 2027. To support this, the government is extending existing advanced learner loan funding for a further 2 years, until 2027, for providers who have not registered with OfS under either of the 2 existing categories. The programme end date has therefore moved out. Overall the programme is making good progress on the schedule, moving at pace to lay the required secondary legislation and develop the LLE systems. Students will be able to apply for LLE courses from September 2025, for courses starting from January 2026.

Cost: The project's departmental-agree Whole Life Cost at 23/24-Q4 is 0m. This is primarily due to the following factors. The project's Whole Life Costs have not yet been agreed by the department.

Source: IPA Annual Report 2023-24 (data)