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Sale of Student Loans Bill

As my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) is aware, I had an opportunity to discuss this issue with him between the Committee stage and Report. My hon. Friend has said that neither the Bill nor the explanatory notes explicitly specify that the reimbursement described in clause 4(3) refers to amounts payable by a borrower. That is true, but as I think my hon. Friend accepts, the point is made explicitly in the Act to which the subsection refers. Section 22(5)(f) of the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 allows the Secretary of State to make regulations enabling the recovery of specified costs and expenses from the borrower incurred in recovering the outstanding balance of the loan. The wording of the existing legislation refers explicitly to borrowers. Clause 4(3) therefore simply enables those regulations to provide for the reimbursement that currently applies to the Secretary of State to be made to the purchaser of sold loans. On that basis—and I have discussed this with my hon. Friend—I genuinely believe that the amendment is unnecessary. However, I should be more than happy to amend the explanatory notes to make the meaning and effect of the subsection clearer. That was really the issue at the start of the debate, and I hope that on that basis my hon. Friend will be reassured.