Clause 5
Sale of Student Loans Bill
5:30 pm
Bill Rammell (Minister of State (Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education), Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills; Harlow, Labour)
The latter would come by means of a contract and I hope that that provides a reassurance. In respect of the hon. Gentleman’s questions, we have made it clear that we intend to ensure, by use of contractual obligations, that the private purchasers, through the SPV, use the Student Loans Company to administer the loan repayments on its behalf. We intend the Student Loans Company to carry through its review of the administration of student finance, which is called “Customer First”. That is very much our intention. However, if we were to stipulate in statute today that the Student Loans Company would carry out that task for ever and a day, that would bind our hands unnecessarily and we would have to come back to legislate on that issue when there are already other protections in place.