diff --git a/admin/environment.xml b/admin/environment.xml
index a376761816d..fbd9df62b43 100644
--- a/admin/environment.xml
+++ b/admin/environment.xml
@@ -3371,6 +3371,7 @@
       <VENDOR name="oracle" version="11.2" />
     </DATABASE>
     <PHP version="7.3.0" level="required">
+      <RESTRICT function="restrict_php_version_81" message="unsupportedphpversion81" />
     </PHP>
     <PCREUNICODE level="optional">
       <FEEDBACK>
@@ -3557,6 +3558,7 @@
       <VENDOR name="oracle" version="11.2" />
     </DATABASE>
     <PHP version="7.3.0" level="required">
+      <RESTRICT function="restrict_php_version_81" message="unsupportedphpversion81" />
     </PHP>
     <PCREUNICODE level="optional">
       <FEEDBACK>
diff --git a/lang/en/admin.php b/lang/en/admin.php
index 145aa335233..17be3b3dfda 100644
--- a/lang/en/admin.php
+++ b/lang/en/admin.php
@@ -1437,12 +1437,13 @@ $string['unsupporteddbfilepertable'] = 'For full support of UTF-8 both MySQL and
 $string['unsupporteddblargeprefix'] = 'For full support of UTF-8 both MySQL and MariaDB require you to change your MySQL setting \'innodb_large_prefix\' to \'ON\'. See the documentation for further details.';
 $string['unsupporteddbstorageengine'] = 'The database storage engine being used is no longer supported.';
 $string['unsupporteddbtablerowformat'] = 'Your database has tables using Antelope as the file format. You are recommended to convert the tables to the Barracuda file format. See the documentation <a href="https://docs.moodle.org/en/cli">Administration via command line</a> for details of a tool for converting InnoDB tables to Barracuda.';
-$string['unsupportedphpversion7'] = 'PHP version 7 is not supported.';
-$string['unsupportedphpversion71'] = 'PHP version 7.1 is not supported.';
-$string['unsupportedphpversion72'] = 'PHP version 7.2 is not supported.';
-$string['unsupportedphpversion73'] = 'PHP version 7.3 is not supported.';
-$string['unsupportedphpversion74'] = 'PHP version 7.4 is not supported.';
-$string['unsupportedphpversion80'] = 'PHP version 8.0 is not supported.';
+$string['unsupportedphpversion7'] = 'PHP version 7 and higher are not supported.';
+$string['unsupportedphpversion71'] = 'PHP version 7.1 and higher are not supported.';
+$string['unsupportedphpversion72'] = 'PHP version 7.2 and higher are not supported.';
+$string['unsupportedphpversion73'] = 'PHP version 7.3 and higher are not supported.';
+$string['unsupportedphpversion74'] = 'PHP version 7.4 and higher are not supported.';
+$string['unsupportedphpversion80'] = 'PHP version 8.0 and higher are not supported.';
+$string['unsupportedphpversion81'] = 'PHP version 8.1 and higher are not supported.';
 $string['unsuspenduser'] = 'Activate user account';
 $string['updateaccounts'] = 'Update existing accounts';
 $string['updatecomponent'] = 'Update component';
diff --git a/lib/environmentlib.php b/lib/environmentlib.php
index 5068d85cb07..5ace1322278 100644
--- a/lib/environmentlib.php
+++ b/lib/environmentlib.php
@@ -1664,3 +1664,14 @@ function restrict_php_version_74(&$result) {
 function restrict_php_version_80($result) {
     return restrict_php_version($result, '8.0');
 }
+
+/**
+ * Check if the current PHP version is greater than or equal to
+ * PHP version 8.1
+ *
+ * @param object $result an environment_results instance
+ * @return bool result of version check
+ */
+function restrict_php_version_81($result) {
+    return restrict_php_version($result, '8.1');
+}