Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what is the ring-fenced allocation from her resource departmental expenditure limit for the resource accounting and budgeting charge for higher education student loans for each financial year of the current spending review period.

The allocated budget for the Resourcing, Accounting and Budgeting charge expenditure, forms part of the total resource departmental expenditure limit. It is disclosed within the depreciation figure set out within the annual report and accounts. In the 2016-17 annual report and accounts, this was £3.5bn for 2017-18, £3.9bn for 2018-19 and £4.3bn for 2019-20. As in prior years, the 2017-18 budget will be reviewed as part of the Supplementary Estimates process.

The cost of the system is a conscious investment in young people. It is the policy subsidy required to make higher and further education widely available, achieving the Government’s objectives of increasing the skills in the economy and ensuring access to university for all with the potential to benefit.