Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has considered the potential merits of introducing a cap on total lifetime student loan repayments, such as the 1.2 times principal cap recommended by the 2019 Review of Post-18 Education and Funding.

We recognise that the student finance system we inherited is not working as fairly or effectively as it should, and that some students and graduates feel its effects more acutely than others.

We have already taken action to protect graduates by capping maximum interest rates on Plan 2 and Plan 3 loans at 6% for the 2026/27 academic year, protecting borrowers from the risk of inflation shocks. We have also increased the Plan 2 repayment threshold twice, its first increases since 2021. It now stands at £29,385, and borrowers earning below this threshold are not required to make any repayments at all.

We are clear these interventions do not resolve all the issues with Plan 2 loans, which were designed by previous governments. We continue to consider ways to improve the system, but fiscal responsibility requires us to consider how any further changes would be funded.