Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department made of the potential merits of resuming the process of selling the student loan book prior to the decision being announced on 31 October 2017.

Selling financial assets, like student loans, where there is no policy reason to retain them, and value for money can be secured for the taxpayer, is an important part of the government’s plan to repair the public finances.

Throughout the sale process, the government regularly assessed whether a sale would represent value for money for the taxpayer, using guidance set out in HM Treasury’s Green Book.

In the months leading up to the sale, the government and its advisers monitored market conditions closely to ensure that there was an appropriate market window to execute the transaction. At the point of resuming the process, market conditions were supportive of securitisation issuances, and feedback from investors confirmed there would be sufficient market capacity to buy the assets.

Pursuant to section 4 of the Sale of Student Loans Act 2008, a report on the sale arrangements was deposited in the House Libraries on 7 December 2017 (deposit reference DEP2017-0778) and is available at: https://www.parliament.uk/depositedpapers.