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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress his Department has made on plans to sell off student loans; and what recent estimate he has made of the amount of revenue expected to be raised by that sell off.

As stated in the March 2016 Budget, the Government is continuing to prepare for the sale of the pre-2012 income contingent repayment (ICR) student loan book, with a first sale expected in 2016-17.

The March 2016 Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) Forecast estimated £2.4bn of sale proceeds in 2016-17 - this is an average based on Government’s central estimate of £12bn proceeds from a series of sales over a 5-year period up until 2020-21.

A sale would not impact borrowers. Government would still finance student loans and continue to collect repayments through Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Student Loans Company (SLC). Purchasers would have no direct relationship with borrowers, and would have no power to amend the terms of repayment.