Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether teachers and administrators are clear about the support their schools should provide to children with allergies, and what monitoring and evaluation processes they have in place to ensure this support is provided.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In 2014, the government introduced a new duty on schools to support pupils with all medical conditions, including allergies, and published the ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’ statutory guidance for schools and others.
Schools also have duties under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments to their practices, procedures, and policies to ensure that they are not putting those with certain long-term health problems at a substantial disadvantage.
The department recently reminded all schools of their legal duty under Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to plan for supporting pupils with medical conditions, including allergies. This reminder also included a link to the statutory guidance governing bodies must have regard to when carrying out their duty under Section 100.
Ofsted’s role is to make sure that schools provide a high standard of education through its inspection and reporting process. As part of that process, inspectors gather a wide range of evidence to make their judgements, including the evaluation of the experience of particular individuals and groups. This includes the experiences of pupils with medical needs.
As part of the inspection, inspectors will assess the effectiveness of safeguarding at the school. This includes the extent to which pupils with specific needs and vulnerabilities are kept safe. The safeguarding culture is also explored through speaking to leaders and staff about their work, including the messages that pupils receive through the curriculum.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of interest rate charges on Government student loan financing, following research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies which showed that higher interest rates will add more than £10 billion per year to the cost of England’s student loan system.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Student loans are valued in the department’s annual accounts in line with the International Financial Reporting Standard 9 and set out in The Government Financial Reporting Manual which is attached.
Under which where future cash flows are discounted to measure the fair value of a financial asset, this should be done using the higher of the rate intrinsic to the financial instrument or the HMT discount rate. HMT set the discount rate annually based on a 10 year rolling average of gilt yields. For student loans the intrinsic rate would be the discount rate that gave a Resource Accounting Budget (RAB) or stock charge of 0%, so the HMT discount rate is used provided the RAB charge is greater than 0%. Should the HMT discount rate result in a RAB charge calculation giving a negative value then the intrinsic rate is used instead, meaning that that RAB charge will take a value of 0%.
The most recent forecasts for the student finance system can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23.
The net present value of future repayments was calculated by discounting all future repayments at a rate of RPI -1.3% per year until the end of financial year 2029/30, and -0.2% per year from financial year 2030/31, to the same point in time as the loan outlay or loan balance. This is the discount rate for financial instruments set by HMT in 2022 and is intended to reflect of the cost of government borrowing. The most recent student loan forecasts using the 2023 discount rate set by HMT will be published at the end of June 2024.
The department has carefully assessed the impact of changes and published a full and comprehensive analysis in the Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment, which is attached.
The student loan repayment system under Plan 5 is progressive, with repayments being positively correlated with lifetime earnings. The highest earners make the largest individual contributions to the system overall, and the lowest earners are required to contribute the least.
Lower earners, whether male or female, are protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold, they will not be required to make any repayments at all. At the end of the loan term, any outstanding loan debt, including interest accrued, will be written off at no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of protection.
The department will continue to keep the student finance system, including repayment terms, under review to ensure that it remains sustainable and delivers value for money for students and the taxpayer.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of changes to the student loan repayment system, introduced in August 2023, on female students.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Student loans are valued in the department’s annual accounts in line with the International Financial Reporting Standard 9 and set out in The Government Financial Reporting Manual which is attached.
Under which where future cash flows are discounted to measure the fair value of a financial asset, this should be done using the higher of the rate intrinsic to the financial instrument or the HMT discount rate. HMT set the discount rate annually based on a 10 year rolling average of gilt yields. For student loans the intrinsic rate would be the discount rate that gave a Resource Accounting Budget (RAB) or stock charge of 0%, so the HMT discount rate is used provided the RAB charge is greater than 0%. Should the HMT discount rate result in a RAB charge calculation giving a negative value then the intrinsic rate is used instead, meaning that that RAB charge will take a value of 0%.
The most recent forecasts for the student finance system can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23.
The net present value of future repayments was calculated by discounting all future repayments at a rate of RPI -1.3% per year until the end of financial year 2029/30, and -0.2% per year from financial year 2030/31, to the same point in time as the loan outlay or loan balance. This is the discount rate for financial instruments set by HMT in 2022 and is intended to reflect of the cost of government borrowing. The most recent student loan forecasts using the 2023 discount rate set by HMT will be published at the end of June 2024.
The department has carefully assessed the impact of changes and published a full and comprehensive analysis in the Higher Education Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment, which is attached.
The student loan repayment system under Plan 5 is progressive, with repayments being positively correlated with lifetime earnings. The highest earners make the largest individual contributions to the system overall, and the lowest earners are required to contribute the least.
Lower earners, whether male or female, are protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold, they will not be required to make any repayments at all. At the end of the loan term, any outstanding loan debt, including interest accrued, will be written off at no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of protection.
The department will continue to keep the student finance system, including repayment terms, under review to ensure that it remains sustainable and delivers value for money for students and the taxpayer.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the value of student loan debt for each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
It is not possible to provide the complete information requested within the body of the answer as this would exceed the word limit for responses. Please see the below links to the relevant reports. A copy of these reports will also be deposited in the Libraries of both Houses.
The valuation of the loan book is listed in the annual reports on GOV.UK, at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dfe-annual-reports. The note on loans under the ‘Notes to Accounts’ section lists both the carrying and face value of the loan book.
For the 2019-20 annual accounts, the details for the carrying value are on page 195 and the details for the face value of the loan book are on page 202: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/932898/DfE_consolidated_annual_report_and_accounts_2019_to_2020__web_version_.pdf.
For the 2018-19 annual accounts, the details for the carrying value are on page 159 and the details for the face value of the loan book are on page 161: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/906353/DfE_Consolidated_annual_report_2018-19_web.pdf.
For the 2017-18 annual accounts, the details for the carrying value are on page 147 and the details for the face value of the loan book are on page 148: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/728074/DfE_annual_reports_and_accounts_17_to_18_-_WEB.pdf.
For the 2016-17 annual accounts, the details for the carrying value are on page 154 and the details for the face value of the loan book are on page 155: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/630523/DfE_Consolidated_annual_report_and_accounts_2016-17_WEB.pdf.
For the 2015-16 annual accounts, the details for the carrying value are on page 177 and the details for the face value of the loan book are on page 178: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/537425/bis-annual-report-accounts-2015-16-web.pdf.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of graduate earnings in their calculation of the write off of student loan debt.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The department’s assessment of the earnings of student loan borrowers takes into account the latest Student Loan Company and Longitudinal Education Outcomes data, plus survey data from the Labour Force Survey and British Household Panel Survey, mortality statistics from the Office for National Statistics and macro-economic forecasts of earnings growth from the Office for Budget Responsibility. The assessment can be accessed here: https://obr.uk/fsr/fiscal-sustainability-report-july-2020/, in the document 'July 2020 Fiscal sustainability report - charts and tables: Chapter 2'. Detailed information on the assessment of graduate earnings is published in the Earnings forecasts section of the Student Loans methodology, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/student-loan-forecasts-england-2019-to-2020, in the document 'Student loan forecasts, England 2019 to 2020: quality and methodology information'. The next update to the student loan forecasts publication is announced for June 2021.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what calculation they use to decide the level of write off of student loan debt.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government publishes its loan write-off rules, available here: https://www.gov.uk/repaying-your-student-loan/when-your-student-loan-gets-written-off-or-cancelled. We estimate the proportion of loan outlay issued in each financial year that we do not expect to be repaid through a metric called the Resource And Budgeting (RAB) charge.
The RAB charge is calculated by taking repayment forecasts for income contingent repayment loans and discounting them back to the period that the loan is issued using the discount rate provided by HM Treasury (currently RPI+0.7%). This gives us a net present value (NPV) of the future repayments and the charge is the relative difference between the loan issued and the NPV of the repayments. Further details of the RAB charge calculation are provided in the annual student loan forecast publication methodology document, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/920992/Student_loan_forecasts_201920.pdf.
The RAB charge estimate is determined by earnings and repayment projections over the next 30-40 years, and therefore is inherently uncertain. Forecasts for the RAB charge are published each year, and are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2019-20.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the write off value of the sale of student loan debt in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
A total of £8.1 million has been written off from the sold loan cohorts in the financial years 2016/17 to 2020/21.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the UK's departure from the EU, what assessment they have made of the ability of (1) UK citizens to work in the EU, and (2) the earnings potential of graduates, in calculating the write off of student loan debt.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Withdrawal Agreement protects the rights of UK nationals who were lawfully resident in the EU before the end of the transition period, meaning they can continue to live, work, study, and access benefits and services broadly as they did before the UK left the EU. Member states may require a visa and/or work permit from British citizens intending to work or provide a service there. British citizens should check with the embassy of the country where they plan to travel for work or to provide a service for what type of visa or permit, if any, they will need.
Regardless of the UK’s departure from the EU, the assessment of the earnings of student loan borrowers continues to take into account the latest Student Loan Company and Longitudinal Education Outcomes data, plus survey data from the Labour Force Survey and British Household Panel Survey, mortality statistics from the Office for National Statistics and macro-economic forecasts of earnings growth from the Office for Budget Responsibility. The assessment can be accessed here: https://obr.uk/fsr/fiscal-sustainability-report-july-2020/, in the document 'July 2020 Fiscal sustainability report - charts and tables: Chapter 2'. Detailed information on the assessment of graduate earnings is published in the Earnings forecasts section of the Student Loans methodology, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/student-loan-forecasts-england-2019-to-2020, in the document 'Student loan forecasts, England 2019 to 2020: quality and methodology information'. The next update to the student loan forecasts publication is announced for June 2021.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what amount of student debt has been sold in each of the past five years; and at what value.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government has carried out 2 sales of student loans in the past 5 years. The first sale, completed in December 2017, achieved £1.7 billion from a cohort of loans with a face value of £3.5 billion. The second sale, completed in December 2018, achieved £1.9 billion from a cohort of loans with a face value of £3.9 billion.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) what assessment they have made of whether current guidelines for schools are sufficient to address the spread of (a) the strain of COVID-19 identified in the UK, and (b) the reported “South African” strain of COVID-19; (2) who has conducted and is conducting any such assessment; (3) whether they plan to provide any new safety measures to schools to address any such new strains of COVID-19; and (4) if so, when they plan to do so.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The department has worked closely with Public Health England to develop a system of controls to reduce the risk of transmission in schools. When implemented in line with a revised risk assessment, these measures create an inherently safer environment for children and staff where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced. The system of controls is reviewed continually in light of new evidence – including evidence about new variants.
There is no evidence the new variant of the virus ‘VUI – 202012/01’, identified in the UK, causes more serious illness in either children or adults and there continues to be strong evidence to date that children and younger people (under 18 years) are much less susceptible to severe clinical disease than older people.
There is no current evidence that it may be particularly dangerous to clinically extremely vulnerable children.
We will continue to work closely with Public Health England and others to update our guidance based on the latest medical and scientific advice.