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Sale of Student Loans Bill

The tension between those two imperatives lies at the heart of the matter. I do not wish to complicate our considerations, but may I also add a third: that the Government are obliged to deal with these things rather more hurriedly than they or the House would wish? They have made it clear—Ministers have been straightforward about this—that they need to sell the loan book pretty quickly, because they factored income from that sale into their spending plans. My right hon. Friend will know, given his extensive business and City experience, that it is not always wise to sell something at an inappropriate time and it is not always—perhaps never—wise to let potential purchasers know that one is going to do so. That drives the price down, because they then say that the Government have to sell, because if they do not, they will be short of brass. That is what this boils down to. We have a fear about the Lords amendment, so our probing amendment— I reassure the Minister about its nature—aims to ensure that he has the opportunity to clarify, on the record, the nature of the sale that will doubtless ensue as a result of this enabling legislation. My right hon. Friend is right to say that the interests of borrowers and taxpayers have been at the heart of our considerations. We would complain bitterly if, after this period of friendly co-operation, the Government used this legislation at the wrong time and got a lousy deal. If we did not complain in such circumstances, we would not be doing our duty to this House or to taxpayers. There is a danger that the Government's Lords amendment will transfer any uncertainty about future repayment terms from potential purchasers of the loan book to borrowers. That would not be a satisfactory outcome. The additional permissiveness at the heart of the amendment may be warranted, but at the very least, we need to know what the Government are thinking, why they are thinking it and who has advised them. I know that the Minister will be anxious to clarify his and the Government's position at the earliest opportunity. On Lords amendment No. 3, I should point out that the explanatory notes state:"““Lords Amendment 3 would ensure that the scope of undertakings given by the Secretary of State could extend to regulations under section 186 of the Education Act 2002, as well as to the loan regulations under section 22 of the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998. Under section 186 of the 2002 Act, the Secretary of State may make regulations enabling the Secretary of State to make repayments on behalf of borrowers, or to reduce or extinguish ""the amounts owing by them. The amendment would allow the Secretary of State to make binding promises about how this power would or not be exercised.””" Lords amendment No. 7 would insert a new clause into the Bill. I ought to say at this juncture that I am extremely grateful to the Minister for accepting the representations made to him on this subject. The new clause deals with the kind of reporting that would take place after transfer arrangements have occurred. In essence, the Government are saying that parliamentary scrutiny, which we all want in place, will be ensured by a report, brought to this House, on the arrangements pertaining to the sale. The amendment states:"““The report must include information about the extent to which the arrangements give good value””" —for money. We have been so insistent about this matter for the reason that I mentioned a few moments ago in response to the intervention made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood): the fact that it is crucial that we obtain good value for money and, moreover, that this House is able to test that in an empirical way. The House deserves proper information about where a sale was made, how it was made, why it was made at a particular time, the prevailing market conditions and so on.