- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 1 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-13677 by Mr Jim Wallace on 1 February 2005, whether it has concerns about the reduction in numbers of Scottish school leavers entering higher education.
Answer
Around 50% of young peoplewill participate in higher education by the time they are 21. The Executive iscommitted to ensuring that all young people have the opportunity to access thebest option for them, whether this is in higher education, further education,training or employment. Some fluctuation between these options will occur fromtime to time, this is to be expected.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 28 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many Scottish graduates have been advised that they face court proceedings to recover outstanding student loans in each year since the system was introduced.
Answer
Information on Scottish graduates who have been advised that they face court proceedings to recover outstanding student loans is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 28 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many student loan debts have been written off and what the total cash value was of the deleted debt in each year since the system was introduced.
Answer
The Student Loans Company estimates that the total number of student loan debts, held by Scottish account holders, that have been written off since the student loans scheme began is approximately £1.5 million relating to approximately 770 loans. It is not possible to provide an annual breakdown of this figure.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 28 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many student loan borrowers have been declared bankrupt in each year since student loans were introduced.
Answer
The number of Scottish student loan borrowers who have been declared bankrupt to 2003 is given in the answer to question S2W-6052 answered on 2 March 2004.All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.The number declaring bankruptcy in 2004 is 1,541.
There is no statutory requirement for bankrupt students to notify the Student Loans Company of their status, so the figures given will not include all bankruptcies.
The following is a corrected answer (published on 25 October 2005); see below.
Nicol Stephen: The number of Scottish student loan borrowers who have been declared bankrupt to 2003 is given in the answer to question S2W-6052 answered on 2 March 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
The number declaring bankruptcy in 2004 is 289.
There is no statutory requirement for bankrupt students to notify the Student Loans Company of their status, so the figures given will not include all bankruptcies.
This is a correction to the earlier answer to this parliamentary question given by Jim Wallace MSP on 28 February 2005. I have written to Ms Hyslop to say that the Student Loans Company have apologised for their mistake and that they have asked for their apologies to be passed onto Parliament. My letter has been lodged in the Parliament’s Reference Centre under bib number 37248.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many deferral applications the Student Loans Company Ltd has received in each year of its operation, giving the percentage which this represents of all graduates who should have been in repayment status.
Answer
The information requested is given in table 8 on page 56 of the Student Loans Company Ltd’s annual report for 2002-03 published by the Student Loans Companyin November 2003, copies of which are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 31394).
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive when it intends to publish the findings of its research into student poverty and graduate debt.
Answer
The Scottish Executive intend to publish the findings from the Scottish Student Income and Expenditure Survey in summer 2005.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has paid in subsidies for student loans sold in 1998 and 1999.
Answer
Debt sale subsidy payments by the Scottish Executive to 2003-04 in respect of student loans total £62,527,000. However, the cost of these payments is offset in the Executive’s balance sheet against the debt sale subsidy provision, created when the loans were sold, and thus are a nil cost annually.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-5272 by Mr Jim Wallace on 27 January 2004, whether the model of student repayments has now been completed and, if so, whether it will provide an illustration of the effects on annual income flows.
Answer
Future repayments depend on a wide range or factors, and are therefore difficult to forecast. In the past year work has been carried out to improve the student loans repayment model. There has been extensive testing, though, as with all models, it will be subject to further analysis and refinement.
The table summarises the model’s results for the loan repayments, at different thresholds, from April 2006. From April 2005, the threshold will be £15,000.
Loan Repayments (to the Nearest £5 Million)
| Threshold | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| £10,000 | 75 | 105 | 145 |
| £15,000 | 35 | 60 | 90 |
| £19,000 | 20 | 35 | 55 |
| £25,000 | 5 | 10 | 20 |
Note: Student loans are treated as outwith total managed expenditure, which means that the net costs are met by HM Treasury (gross student loan advancesless student loan repayments). This income is the repayment of a debtor balance within the balance sheet. This “income” (loan repayments) and the loan advances are shown in the Budget Act to meet the requirements of section 1 of the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000. At the year-end these figures are reflected within the balance sheet and not within the Operating Cost statement.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether student loans are a disincentive to potential students from ethnic minority backgrounds to enter higher education.
Answer
Student loans have been an integral part of an affordable student funding system since 1990. The most recent information from the Higher Education Statistics Agency and the Scottish Further Education Council, gives details over the five year period from 1998-99 until 2002-03. This shows that the number of students from ethnic minority backgrounds who have entered higher education in this period has increased and continues to exceed the proportion of the general population who are from an ethnic minority background.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the contract awarded to the Student Loans Company Ltd (SLC) to administer the debt portfolio on behalf of private owners was continued at the end of its initial period; whether there were any variations to this contract, and, if so, what those variations are.
Answer
The first debt sale was concluded in March 1998 being sold to Greenwich Natwest (GNW), a division of National Westminster, now Royal Bank of Scotland (RBoS). SLC were appointed to undertake the day-to-day administration. The original contract was for five years from March 1998 and SLC successfully negotiated renewal for a further five years administration period commencing March 2003. There are no variations in the contract.
The second portfolio was concluded in March 1999 and the purchaser was a consortium comprising Deutsche Bank, AG London and Nationwide Building Society. SLC were awarded a five year contract to administer the portfolio. The original contract expired in March 2004 and the debt owners took the decision to award the contract for administration to another agency. The key terms and conditions of the loan are all protected.
