§ Mr. Bryan DaviesTo ask the Secretary of State for Education when she now expects total levels of borrowing and repayments under the student loans scheme to be brought into balance.
§ Mr. BoswellIt has been understood from the outset that repayments will never equal loan outgoings. That would assume no deferment of repayments or cancellation of debt, as concessions allowed under the scheme, and no default.
The loans scheme produced public expenditure savings, when compared with previous policies, in the first full financial year of its operation. On present estimates, the effect of the loan scheme will be to produce public expenditure savings again as from the academic year 2001–02 and annually thereafter.