Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Written Statement of 6 February 2017, HCWS458, what criteria will be used to assess the suitability of the buyer of the part of the English student loan book that the Government plans to sell.

Pursuant to Written Statement HCWS458, the proposed sale will comprise the future repayments on the outstanding balances on a selection of English student loans which became eligible for repayment between 2002 and 2006. A loan enters repayment the April after the student has left their course.

A securitisation structure will be used for the sale to enable the Government to maximise value for money for the taxpayer. Under this structure, the loans will be sold to a new independent English-domiciled company - the Issuer - whose sole purpose is to own the loans on behalf of investors. Investors will purchase notes issued by the Issuer and the Issuer will make payments on the notes using the repayments made on the underlying loans.

The sale is a competitive process open to all eligible investors. The different tranches of notes are expected to be attractive to a range of potential investors, thereby promoting an efficient market and efficient pricing. We anticipate insurers, pension funds and alternative asset managers, among others, will be interested.

Investors would have no right to change any of the current loan arrangements or to contact people with student loans.