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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what projections his Department has made of the future (a) face value and (b) carrying value of the student loan book.

Mr David Willetts

(a) We estimate the cash, or face, value of ICR student loans to follow approximately this profile going forwards.

Value of loan book in real terms

Value of loan book in nominal terms

These estimates assume that fees will increase in line with inflation from 2016 onwards. These forecasts also take account of the freeing up of student number controls in the Autumn Statement, increases in loan take-up rates, demographic changes over time and updated earnings modelling.

(b) We estimate the current carrying value of the student loan book, which is used in the BIS accounts. However, we do not forecast the future carrying value of the loan book, as this is not required for the purposes of accounting or budgeting. Our estimate of the carrying value for loans when they are issued is based on the RAB charge, which we currently estimate is around 45%.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what individual student number controls his Department has set for each provider which has been granted specific course designation under his Department’s financial sustainability, management and governance checks.

Mr David Willetts

Provisional student number allocations have been issued to providers. However, those numbers will only be confirmed and where necessary adjusted when the provider has received designation or re-designation for the 2014/15 academic year. For the majority of providers that process is still on-going. We will publish student number control data when that process has been completed for all providers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will publish the externally audited copies of the last three years’ accounts supplied by alternative learning providers who sought specific course designation under his Department’s financial sustainability, management and governance checks.

Mr David Willetts

The audited accounts of alternative providers submitted to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) as part of the specific designation application process are commercially confidential information. They are only shared with parties involved in the assessment of that application. BIS will not be publishing this information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the average unit cost per year to train an apprentice aged 24 is; and what proportion of such costs is borne by (a) the public purse, (b) apprentices and (c) employers.

Matthew Hancock

The cost of providing an Apprenticeship is highly variable.

In 2012, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) commissioned a report from The Institute for Employment Research entitled: “Employer Investment in Apprenticeships and Workplace Learning”

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/32306/12-814-employer-investment-in-apprenticeships-fifth-net-benefits-study.pdf

The report gives details of the costs of Apprenticeships to employers in several sectors for 16-18 year olds and for 19-24 year olds. It also compares the contribution of employers to that of the state.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will publish all forecasts held by his Department of the annual budget to be allocated to Unionlearn.

Matthew Hancock

The Skills Funding Statement published annually, sets out the funding priorities and available budget to support the further education (FE) and skills sector.

Annual budgets allocated to individual programmes from the FE and skills budget, including Unionlearn is not published separately.

As FE and skills budgets for future years have not been agreed, no annual budget has been forecast for unionlearn.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent estimate his Department has made of the RAB charge for student loans issued after 2012.

Mr David Willetts

We estimate the RAB charge on these loans to be around 45%.

The actual cost of issuing student loans will be dependent on future macro-economic circumstances, in particular earnings and we will continue to update our forecasts on a regular basis to take account of changes to short term and long term macro-economic assumptions.