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Sale of Student Loans Bill

We are having an interesting debate on the meaning of the word ““shall”” and whether it has a legal or an accounting effect. We will have to wait to hear what the Minister says. I hope that he has a corporate lawyer at hand with his officials to slip in some definitive advice. In privatisations, there was often provision for a golden share, and it seems the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Mr. Hayes) and the hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) are proposing a golden clause in the contract of sale. That might be a helpful analogy, but we need to wait for what the Minister says, based on the legal advice that I am sure he is in the course of receiving. Amendment No. 10, tabled by the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings, would prohibit transfers to another person outside the jurisdiction of the Secretary of State. When I read the amendment, I wondered what that meant. The hon. Gentleman suggested, as did Labour Members, that it might mean a break-up of the loan book, and perhaps sales offshore as well. Is there a contradiction between that amendment and his amendment No. 11, which sought a full market test for the sale of the loan book and which I agreed with? If certain people are excluded just because they happen to be outside the jurisdiction of the Secretary of State or of our banking laws or any other laws, would that undermine the concept of value for the taxpayer that the Conservatives sought to achieve?