Student Loans - negative RPI decision

Dear Department for Business, Innovation and Skills,

Please provide any analysis, submissions and recommendations made to ministers (the universities minister was David Lammy MP at the time) that was carried out in connection with the RPI inflation rate coming in as a negative figure of -0.4% in March 2009, with the following policy implications for income-contingent student loans:

(a) the decision not to set an interest rate for academic year 2009/10 (effectively making the rate 0%), rather than set a rate in accordance with the section 22(4)(a) of the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 and regulation 21(1) and (2) of the Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations 2009; and
(b) the decision not to increase the repayment threshold of £15,000 by RPI as intended in April 2010.

Yours faithfully,

Brian Harrison

correspondence@bis.ecase.gsi.gov.uk on behalf of FOI Requests,

BIS ref: FOI2016/16914

Dear Mr Harrison

Thank you for your request for information which was received on 13th
July. Your request has been passed on to the appropriate official at the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to deal with.

Your request is being considered under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and we will reply at the latest by 10th August.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact the Information
Rights Unit at BIS. Please remember to quote the reference number above in
any future communications.

Kind regards,

Information Rights Unit

Information Rights Unit | Department for Business, Innovation & Skills | 1
Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET | www.gov.uk/bis |
[email address] |

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is making a
difference by supporting sustained growth and higher skills across the
economy. BIS: working together for growth

Dear [email address] on behalf of FOI Requests,

Given recent departmental changes can this FOI request please be passed on to the relevant official(s) at Department for Education, now that this policy area has transferred over from the defunct Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to DfE.

Yours sincerely,

Brian Harrison

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

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You attempted to send an email to "correspondence", however this email
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Please forward your query to: [email address]

FOI Requests, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Dear Mr Harrison

Thank you for your request for information dated 13^th July. Your request
is being considered under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI Act), our
reference FOI2016/ 16914. The FOI Act obliges us to respond to requests
promptly, and in any case no later than 20 working days after receiving
your request.  Unfortunately, this request has taken longer than we would
have liked to administer.  I can assure you this matter is currently under
consideration and I hope to respond to you in full shortly.

 

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you.

 

Kind regards,

Information Rights Unit

 

From: [email address] on behalf of FOI Requests
[mailto:[email address]]
Sent: 13 July 2016 16:58
Subject: Request for information - ref FOI2016/16914

 

BIS ref: FOI2016/16914

Dear Mr Harrison

Thank you for your request for information which was received on 13th
July. Your request has been passed on to the appropriate official at the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to deal with.

Your request is being considered under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and we will reply at the latest by 10th August.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact the Information
Rights Unit at BIS. Please remember to quote the reference number above in
any future communications.

Kind regards,

Information Rights Unit

Information Rights Unit | Department for Business, Innovation & Skills | 1
Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET | [1]www.gov.uk/bis |
[2][email address] |

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is making a
difference by supporting sustained growth and higher skills across the
economy. BIS: working together for growth

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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References

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2. mailto:[email address]

Kamil Samir (Digital),

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Harrison,

 

Please find attached a response to your recent information request,
reference FOI2016/16914.

 

If you have any queries about this email, please contact the Department
for Education

 

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

 

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you.

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Information Rights Unit

Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy,

1 Victoria Street

London, SW1H 0ET

[1]www.gov.uk/beis

 

 

References

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1. http://www.gov.uk/beis

Dear Department for Business, Innovation and Skills,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Business, Innovation and Skills's handling of my FOI request 'Student Loans - negative RPI decision'.

I do not accept the public interest test has been properly determined. Whilst I accept the provision for public policy decision making, the public should expect to know what options ministers have considered in making their policy decisions. This provides the public with sufficient knowledge to hold Government accountable for decisions made. I would also suggest that release does not prohibit in any way free and frank provision of advice or deliberation. This might be the case if this was a live policy issue currently being formulated and a FOI was made at the time. However, the policy on the methodology of setting interest rates on pre-2012 ICR student loans has been implemented in primary legislation (Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998) since 1998 and in the repayment regulations under this Act since 2009, and the options that led to the decisions at the subject of this FOI request in response to a negative RPI were considered and implemented in 2009. A negative RPI in future always remains a possibility but it is not the case that the release of the information relating to the 2009 decisions would not provide 'free thinking space' for ministers as the policy of annually uprating the repayment threshold by RPI was eventually implemented into the repayment regulations in 2011; therefore neither decisions in 2009 are live policy issues that would impact current or future formulation of repayment policy. Section 35 of the FOI Act (Formulation Of Government Policy) has therefore been incorrectly applied.

Furthermore Section 32 subsection 2a states that once government policy has been determined, statistical information used for formulation of policy is no longer exempt from release under the Act. I therefore request that the statistical data (analysis of options) and implications drawn from such data is released.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...

Yours faithfully,

Brian Harrison

Dear Department for Business, Innovation and Skills,

Further to my request for an internal review I would like to clarify that the final few lines of my previous email should read paragraph (2)(a) and (b) of Section 35 of the FOI Act 2000, not Section 32. That is, once a decision as to government policy has been taken, any statistical information used to provide an informed background to the taking of the decision is not to be regarded as exempt under paragraph (1) of Section 35 which the Department has stated is the reason it is withholding the information.

Yours faithfully,

Brian Harrison

BIS.Correspondence@bis.gsi.gov.uk on behalf of FOI Requests, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

BEIS ref: FOI2016/16914

Dear Mr Harrison

Thank you for your request for an internal review which was received on
26th August. Your request has been passed on to the appropriate official
at the Department for Education (DfE) to process.

In line with the Information Commissioners guidance, internal reviews
should be responded to within 20 working days unless they are complex, in
which case a response should be sent within 40 working days. Please be
aware that this does not include weekends and bank holidays. DfE aims to
respond to requests for internal reviews as quickly as possible. DfE hope
to be in contact with you again shortly with a decision on your request.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact the Information
Rights Unit at BEIS. Please remember to quote the reference number above
in any future communications.

Kind regards,
Information Rights Unit

Information Rights Unit | Department for Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy | 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET | www.gov.uk/beis |
[email address] |

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is
making a difference by supporting sustained growth and higher skills
across the economy. BEIS: working together for growth

---------
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes
----------

Dear Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Department for Education),

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s... (BEIS ref: FOI2016/16914)

Please can you provide an update on my request for an internal review as 20 working days have now passed since your last response.

As with my FOI request here https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s... (BEIS ref: FOI2016/16957) which I am also awaiting an internal review of, the decisions at the subject of this FOI request involved retrospectively changing policy intentions on repayment terms for borrowers and the Labour administration's response to the negative RPI of -0.4% in March 2009 was to retrospectively change the intention of uprating the repayment threshold by RPI from April 2010 by postponing any amendment to the threshold for 12 months (pending the Browne Review which subsequently recommended a one-off increase to £21,000 as the threshold had not been increased since April 2005). Correspondence from the then universities minister David Lammy which confirmed the Government's policy response to the negative RPI rate in 2009 and the rationale for it is already in the public domain: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/show....

This document (https://web.archive.org/web/200401170020... ) confirmed that it was intended that the original £10,000 threshold (which came into force from 2000 and applied to ICR loan repayments from April 2000) would be uprated with earnings. This intention was changed retrospectively as part of the package of reforms that came with variable top-up fees and the 2004 Higher Education Act and it was replaced by an intention to uprate the new £15,000 threshold by inflation from 2010:
"37. Raising the threshold from £10,000 to £15,000 will increase the cost of student loans to Government. From April 2010 it is intended that it should increase in line with inflation. However, since the cost of the current loans is assessed on the basis that the threshold will rise in line with earnings growth, there are offsetting savings associated with uprating by inflation instead. The combined effect of the two is expected to be a small net saving in cost to Government over the period during which variable fees will be introduced."

As both the Government's response to the negative RPI in 2009 and the decision not to honour the repayment holidays policy for existing post-2008 borrowers in 2010 involved retrospective changes to policy intentions (although I accept were not retrospective changes to the terms and conditions already implemented into the repayment regulations) and were therefore 'ad hoc' changes, I believe it is reasonable to expect that it is in the public interest to disclose the information and analysis undertaken relating to the options the Government considered when making these decisions to retrospectively change the policies borrowers had legitimately expected to be implemented in these cases, in order to hold Government accountable for the decisions made. Please provide an update as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully,

Brian Harrison

Dear Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Department for Education),

BEIS ref: FOI2016/16914

We are now 40 working days from the start of your internal review process on 26th August. This is the latest date by which (for complex cases) the result of an internal review should be communicated. Yet still no outcome has been forthcoming.

Can you respond giving the reason for the delay and whether the internal review has taken place?

Yours faithfully,

Brian Harrison

Dear Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Department for Education),

BEIS ref: FOI2016/16914

Are you in a position to update me on the progress of the requested internal review?

Yours faithfully,

Brian Harrison

BRYCE-GREY, Natasha,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Harrison

 

Please see attached a letter from Ben Coates in relation to the Internal
Review that you have requested.

 

Kind regards

 

Natasha

 

Natasha Bryce-Grey

Higher & Further Education Directorate

PA to Stephen Jones, Deputy Director, Landscape Reform &

Ben Coates, Deputy Director, New Student Finance Products

[1][email address]

Tel: 07388 372565

 

Working hours: 9am – 5pm

 

 

References

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1. mailto:[email address]

BRYCE-GREY, Natasha,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Harrison

 

Please see attached a letter from Ben Coates in relation to the Internal
Review that you have requested.

 

Kind regards

 

Natasha

 

Natasha Bryce-Grey

Higher & Further Education Directorate

PA to Stephen Jones, Deputy Director, Landscape Reform &

Ben Coates, Deputy Director, New Student Finance Products

[1][email address]

Tel: 07388 372565

 

Working hours: 9am – 5pm

 

 

References

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1. mailto:[email address]