§ Mr. David NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his estimate of the number of students following the Finance Act 1988(a) for whom it is impracticable to continue payments under an existing covenant or (b) who are unable to covenant the full amount of their new contribution, and who are unable to benefit from the new parental contribution scale; and whether he has any proposals to tackle this situation.
Mr. JacksonWe do not have estimates of the number of students in either category. There are no plans to revise the arrangements whereby parental contributions to the maintenance of students beginning their courses in the current academic year are assessed in accordance with a reduced scale.