Dear Mr Cushenan
Thank you for your email dated 23/09/2016.

Your request is being considered under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”).

Your request has been allocated reference 124-16.

We will respond to you under the terms of the FOIA and within 20 working
days.

We will contact you further for clarification of your request if this is
considered necessary.

Yours sincerely

Dona Marie Steele | Legal Executive
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 7JD

www.slc.co.uk
Follow us at Twitter/SLCcomms for the latest corporate news and updates

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Dear Mr Cushenan

I refer to your email dated 23/09/2016 requesting the following information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”):

“I would like to know how much was granted in finances for each of the
following and the corresponding years.

Tuition fee loans for years 2015/16 and 2016/17.

Maintenance loans for years 2015/16 and 2016/17

Maintenance grants for the years 2015/16 and 2016/17”

Response

I can confirm that the Student Loans Company Limited (“SLC”) holds
information which falls within the scope of your request.

You did not confirm in your request whether the data you required was for
financial or academic year and you did not specify UK domicile. We did not
contact you to clarify these points because SLC has published, or intends
to publish, data sets, which are within the scope of your request.

Some of the information you have requested is technically exempt under
section 21(1) of the FOIA because the information is reasonably accessible
to you by other means. I have by way of advice and assistance, provided in
Annex A information and internet links to allow you to easily access the
published data.

For the information which is not yet published I have considered whether
this information is exempt from disclosure under section 22(1) of the FOIA
because it is intended for future publication. This is a qualified
exemption and I must consider the public interest test before fully
engaging this exemption.

The argument in favour of disclosure is the public interest in knowing how
public funds have been distributed as part of the student finance process.

The arguments in favour of maintaining the exemption, is that it is in the
public interest to permit public authorities to publish information in a
matter and form and at a time of their own choosing. It ensures the
effective conduct of public affairs, that the general publication of
information is a planned and managed activity within the reasonable control
of public authorities.

To release this information early would undermine the pre-publication
procedures and disclosure control requirements. The current data has been
designated “National Statistics” by the UK Statistics Authority and it is
compliant with its Code of Practice for Official Statistics. To release the
requested information before the official publication date may not allow
for the data to be designated.

Furthermore, to try and provide the data before the planned publication
date would likely lead to a refusal under section 12(1) of the FOIA. By way
of explanation to provide this date would take in excess of 18 hours
because it takes a number of weeks to retrieve from our systems and collate
before publication. This limit is detailed in the Freedom of Information
and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and the
limit applying to us is £450 or 2.5 days (calculated to be 18 hours of
staff time at £25 per hour).

Having given consideration to all of these factors, I am of the view that
the arguments in favour of not releasing information intended for future
publication outweigh those for releasing the information.

(See attached file: Annex A.docx)

Internal Review

I trust that my answer to you is satisfactory; however, if you are unhappy
with the decisions made by me in relation to your freedom of information
request, you may ask SLC for an internal review.

Any such review would be conducted by the Company Secretary/Head of Legal &
Corporate Services, 100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow, G2 7JD. You may request
a review by writing to the Company Secretary/Head of Legal & Corporate
Services or by emailing the FOI Office ([SLC request email]). In the
event that the Company Secretary/Head of Legal & Corporate Services took
part in the original decision, then the Executive Director of Finance,
Strategy and Corporate Services, will conduct the review. SLC will only
consider requests for internal reviews which are made within 3 months of
the date of our original response (except in exceptional circumstances).

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Dona Marie Steele | Legal Executive
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 7JD

www.slc.co.uk
Follow us at Twitter/SLCcomms for the latest corporate news and updates

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