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Sale of Student Loans Bill

Several changes have occurred in my party in the past few weeks for reasons that are obvious to everybody. I therefore took no part in the Second Reading debate or in what I am sure were exciting and incisive contributions from the Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education and the Conservative spokesman in Committee. I have only had sight of the amendments today, so if I make any points that have been answered in previous discussions, I apologise. Amendment No. 5 would provide that purchasers have no right to alter the repayment terms of any debts that are sold. That is a worthwhile condition to include in the Bill. Protection should obviously be in place for graduates for all their repayment terms—the threshold at which they begin, the rate at which they pay and the period over which they make the repayments. Only hon. Members, through the democratic process, should alter those conditions in future. We are therefore happy to support the amendment. Amendment No. 6 refers to transfer arrangements, and would provide that they are not made to an organisation underwritten by the Government. When I read the bald phrasing of the amendment, I wondered to what the hon. Member for Reading, East (Mr. Wilson) was alluding—the Export Credits Guarantee Department or another organisation that the Government might underwrite. It was indeed an attempt to inject a further discussion about Northern Rock into parliamentary proceedings. Of course, the leader of the Conservative party has for several weeks been trying to steal my deputy leader's thunder on that during Prime Minister's Question Time. Leaving that aside, the amendment is logical. If we are considering a genuine sale of the loan book, there should also be genuine transfer of risk. There should be no danger of the risk becoming circular and travelling back to the Government and the taxpayer if the loan book were purchased by an organisation that had, now or in future, a direct connection to the Treasury or another part of Government. Amendment No. 11, which, like two others in the group, would amend clause 1, would provide that the Secretary of State must ensure that he has examined the prevailing market conditions and that competitive conditions have been generated for the sale of the debt. That seems common sense. I am prepared to accuse the Government of many things, but I am sure that they would not wilfully sell off £6 billion of debt—if that is the true figure—at a substantial discount that would cause them to be examined by the National Audit Office and the new Comptroller and Auditor General, whom we discussed earlier. The amendment would also provide that full information was placed in the market. Again, I doubt that anyone would buy a chunk of Government debt if full information were not put in the marketplace. I should like an assurance from the Minister that normal due diligence procedures will apply and that full information will be provided to anyone who contemplates buying up to £6 billion of a current Government asset. Of course, there should be genuine transfer of risk. Finally, we obviously support the test of whether selling off the loan book, compared with keeping it in the state-controlled Student Loans Company, constitutes genuine value for money for the taxpayer. Like me, the hon. Member for Reading, East got interested in politics in the 1980s—I believe that we were in the same party at that point.