Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of potential revenue to be raised from the privatisation of the student loans book.

The process required to sell part of the English student loan book under the Sale of Student Loans Act (2008) was launched in February this year. An update will be provided in due course.

A sale on the basis set out in February would not represent a step towards privatisation of the provision or administration of student loans. The position of people with student loans would not be affected as a result of such a sale.

The proposed sale comprised the rights to future repayments and would not involve alteration of the mechanisms or terms of repayment.

This sale process was the first in a planned programme of sales of loans issued under the previous “pre-2012” system, targeting £12bn of proceeds by the end of the 2020-21 financial year.