Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the average amount of interest accrued on student finance loans for women on maternity leave in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Student loans are subject to interest, to ensure that those who can afford to contribute to the full cost of their degree can do so.

The student finance system protects borrowers in cases where they see a reduction in their income for whatever reason, including women on maternity leave or any other person on parental leave. Student loan repayments are based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate or amount borrowed, and no repayments are made for earnings below the relevant student loan repayment threshold. Any outstanding debt, including interest accrued, is written off at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower.

A full equality impact assessment of how the student loan reforms may affect graduates, including detail on changes to average lifetime repayments under Plan 5, was produced and published in February 2022, and can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason interest rates are applied to student finance loans for women on maternity leave.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Student loans are subject to interest, to ensure that those who can afford to contribute to the full cost of their degree can do so.

The student finance system protects borrowers in cases where they see a reduction in their income for whatever reason, including women on maternity leave or any other person on parental leave. Student loan repayments are based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate or amount borrowed, and no repayments are made for earnings below the relevant student loan repayment threshold. Any outstanding debt, including interest accrued, is written off at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower.

A full equality impact assessment of how the student loan reforms may affect graduates, including detail on changes to average lifetime repayments under Plan 5, was produced and published in February 2022, and can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps the Government is taking against individual service users whose online deceptions cause (a) non-trivial emotional and psychological damage, and (b) fall within the scope of coercive control.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Individuals can be prosecuted if they commit offences online or offline. The Online Safety Act forces online platforms and search services to reduce the risk of illegal content being encountered on their services. Platforms must focus on ‘priority offences’, including content which amounts to controlling and coercive behaviour and must reduce the risk of priority offences being committed on their service. We know such offences disproportionately impact women and girls. This government has set an unprecedented mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. We will explore further measures as needed.

Found: meeting Members present: Dame Meg Hillier (Chair); Debbie Abrahams; Dame Karen Bradley; Liam Byrne; Ruth Cadbury

Found: Also attended: Ruth Cadbury (Chair), on behalf of the Transport Committee.

Found: to our sister Committee, the Transport Select Committee, under the excellent chairmanship of Ruth Cadbury

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Ruth Cadbury (Chair); Steff Aquarone; Dr Scott Arthur; Catherine

Found: Kind regards, Ruth Cadbury MP Chair, Transport Committee

Submit Evidence (by 7 Feb 2025)

The Transport Committee is examining investment pipelines for the railway.