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Tag: Liam Byrne

  • Liam Byrne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Liam Byrne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2015-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2015 to Question 222138, which organisations are involved in the process of clearing home-owners’ applications to the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism; how many applicants have been rejected during that process; and what the involvement of the Israeli government is in assessing the security risks associated with each application.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The organisations involved in the process of clearing home-owners’ applications to the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM) are the UN agencies doing the damage assessment, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Public Works and Housing and Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Government of Israel.

    No individuals have been rejected to date, but a number of the assessments submitted require review ahead of further processing. These were mostly caused by repetition of names of individuals or where the assessments were recorded under the names of owners who are deceased for example. The GRM does not allow for the disqualification of individuals assessed for shelter repair on grounds of political association or geographic location in Gaza.

    The Government of Israel, like all participants in the mechanism, is able to object to individuals participating in the GRM.

  • Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-07-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when his Department plans next to update the RAB charge on student loans.

    Greg Clark

    The next update of the RAB charge will happen when the Student Loans Company provides the Department with updated loans data. This typically takes place in early autumn each year.

  • Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-04-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his policy is on raising the cap on the amount of student loan accessible by students studying at alternative learning providers.

    Mr David Willetts

    There currently are no plans to raise the cap on the amount of student loan accessible by students studying at alternative providers. Alternative providers are not subject to the same regulatory conditions as those providers whose students can access fee loans of up to £9000. In particular, the fees that they may charge students are not subject to a cap, nor are these providers required to put in place an Access Agreement.

  • Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-04-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what he expects the RAB charge to be for extra students entering higher education when the present cap on student numbers is removed in 2014-15.

    Mr David Willetts

    We produce a single RAB charge that is an estimate of the overall cost of issuing loans to students. This charge is currently around 45% for full time students. Similarly, a single RAB charge will be applied to all students entering higher education in 14-15.

  • Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    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.

  • Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-06-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many meetings he has had with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser in the last 12 months.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    As was the case under previous administrations, details of internal meetings are not normally disclosed.

  • Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-03-31.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether any alternative learning providers have not met the standards he recently announced on (a) quality assurance, (b) financial sustainability and (c) management and governance.

    Mr David Willetts

    To date, 16 alternative providers that applied to have courses designated under the new specific course designation arrangements have not met the standards required. 3 applications were rejected because of quality assurance; 13 applications were rejected because of concerns over financial sustainability.

  • Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to page 201 of HM Treasury’s Central Government Supply Estimates 2013-14, Supplementary Estimates and New Estimates, February 2014, HC 1006, what factors led to the need for the revised forecast that gave rise to the reserve claim of £5.455 billion for non-cash relating to revised forecasts for student loans; for what reasons this was unforeseen in his Department’s main estimate for 2013-14; and what steps he plans to take to avoid the need for such a supplementary estimate in the future.

    Mr David Willetts

    The Supplementary Estimates claim covered additional impairment of up to £3.2 billion resulting from improvements made to the student loans repayment model. Significant changes were made to the model after Main Estimates 2013-14 which enabled the Department to make better use of historical earnings data, which in turn produced greater accuracy in modelling borrowers’ earnings paths. These changes, in addition to greater use of Student Loan Company data to support the model, have enabled us to address the historic over-forecasting of repayments.

    The claim also included a contingency of £1.4 billion for any change to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) economic forecasts between December 2013 and March 2014. If unusually low interest rates were forecast to continue for longer than expected, this would result in a cost to Government as future cash flows would be lower. Any changes to forecasts of earnings growth and RPI would also mean that lower loan repayments would be likely in future years The Department will continue to take account the possibility that the OBR will change its forecasts in March of future years.

    Non-cash pressures of £0.4 billion from higher than forecast growth in the take-up of loans and pre-agreed claims of £0.7 billion for higher impairment charges identified at SR13 were also included.

    The Department will continue to update its modelling of student loan repayments in the light of the latest data and forecasts, and methodological innovation.

  • Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    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

    2014-15

    2015-16

    2016-17

    2017-18

    2018-19

    2019-20

    2020-21

    2021-22

    2022-23

    2023-24

    £70bn

    £80bn

    £90bn

    £100bn

    £110bn

    £120bn

    £130bn

    £140bn

    £150bn

    £160bn

    2024-25

    2025-26

    2026-27

    2027-28

    2028-29

    2029-30

    2030-31

    2031-32

    2032-33

    2033-34

    £170bn

    £180bn

    £190bn

    £200bn

    £210bn

    £220bn

    £230bn

    £240bn

    £250bn

    £260bn

    2034-35

    2035-36

    2036-37

    2037-38

    2038-39

    2039-40

    2040-41

    2041-42

    2042-43

    2043-44

    £260bn

    £270bn

    £280bn

    £280bn

    £290bn

    £300bn

    £300bn

    £310bn

    £320bn

    £320bn

    2044-45

    2045-46

    2046-47

    2047-48

    2048-49

    2049-50

    £330bn

    £330bn

    £330bn

    £330bn

    £330bn

    £330bn

    Value of loan book in nominal terms

    2014-15

    2015-16

    2016-17

    2017-18

    2018-19

    2019-20

    2020-21

    2021-22

    2022-23

    2023-24

    £70bn

    £80bn

    £100bn

    £110bn

    £130bn

    £150bn

    £170bn

    £190bn

    £210bn

    £230bn

    2024-25

    2025-26

    2026-27

    2027-28

    2028-29

    2029-30

    2030-31

    2031-32

    2032-33

    2033-34

    £250bn

    £270bn

    £300bn

    £320bn

    £350bn

    £380bn

    £410bn

    £440bn

    £470bn

    £500bn

    2034-35

    2035-36

    2036-37

    2037-38

    2038-39

    2039-40

    2040-41

    2041-42

    2042-43

    2043-44

    £530bn

    £570bn

    £600bn

    £640bn

    £670bn

    £710bn

    £750bn

    £790bn

    £830bn

    £870bn

    2044-45

    2045-46

    2046-47

    2047-48

    2048-49

    2049-50

    £920bn

    £960bn

    £1,000bn

    £1,030bn

    £1,070bn

    £1,100bn

    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%.

  • Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Liam Byrne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-06-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many meetings he has had with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser in the last 12 months.

    Stephen Hammond

    As was the case under previous administrations, details of internal meetings are not normally disclosed.