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Sale of Student Loans Bill

My Lords, I appreciate very much what the Minister has said, particularly on the last clause, referring to Wales. The Sale of Student Loans Bill will give the Welsh Assembly the power to sell off the Welsh portion of the student loan book valued at £1.1 billion, which is a small part of the £18.1 billion for the whole scheme. However, any money arising from the sales will go to the Treasury’ Consolidated Fund. At the moment in Wales, we have the most severe school closure programme that Wales has ever known. Certain local authorities are having to close up to 30 schools. They cannot continue because the pupil numbers are so small. We would not argue that every school should be kept open, but if this £1.1 billion came to the coffers of the Welsh Assembly it could make a massive difference. The school in which David Lloyd George was educated has, at the moment, 80 pupils, yet it is threatened in a clandestine way with closure. If this money could be injected into Welsh education rather than go to the centralised Westminster Consolidated Fund, it would make a massive difference. In Committee in the other place, Bill Rammell, the Minister responsible for the Bill, admitted that there was no way that any money raised from the sale of Welsh student loans could be earmarked for Wales. If we want the money in Wales, the Welsh Assembly will have to go cap in hand to the Westminster Government to ask whether it can have its own money. If the Bill provides an opportunity for the Assembly Government to raise money, it makes sense for it to spend the money in the way that it wishes. The fact that Wales would not necessarily see a penny of any revenue raised will provide a strong incentive for Welsh Ministers to do nothing, even if they think that selling off the loan book would provide better value. The Welsh Assembly Government may very well choose not to use its new powers, but I do not understand why, if it does, the money has to stay in London. Speaking as a Welshman to a Minister who is also from Wales, I suggest that devolution means trusting the Assembly to deliver policies that will make a difference to Wales. Once again, unfortunately, the Westminster Government are clutching tightly at the purse strings. I urge the Government to think again on this matter.