Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the cost to higher education budgets in (a) Northern Ireland, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales of the replacement of maintenance grants with additional student loans, as a result of the Barnett formula.

This reform in England reduces public sector net borrowing and was accounted for in the settlement for my department. Higher Education is a devolved matter and the Barnett formula was applied to the department’s Spending Review settlement in the usual way.