Health
Migraines, 30 Jun 2008
Ashok Kumar (PPS (Rt Hon Hilary Benn, Secretary of State), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland, Labour) | Hansard source
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of migraine treatment in England.
Ann Keen (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Health Services), Department of Health; Brentford & Isleworth, Labour) | Hansard source
We have made no recent assessment of the standard of migraine treatment.
Culture Media and Sport
Public Holidays 30 Jun 2008
Ashok Kumar (PPS (Rt Hon Hilary Benn, Secretary of State), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform on establishing St. George's Day as a bank holiday.
Margaret Hodge (Minister of State (Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism), Department for Culture, Media & Sport; Barking, Labour) |
None. The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform is responsible for bank holidays and there are currently no plans to change the present well-established and accepted pattern of bank holidays
Innovation, Universities and Skills
Students: Debts
Ashok Kumar (PPS (Rt Hon Hilary Benn, Secretary of State), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland, Labour) |
To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what estimate he has made of the average debt per capita of students leaving university in each year since 1997.
The 2004/05 Student Income and Expenditure Survey (SIES) estimated the average personal debt per student—student loan and commercial borrowing less savings—to be £7,918 at graduation for English full-time undergraduates. A consistent time series of this estimate is not available.
Estimates for samples with differing characteristics are available from earlier surveys. These showed the average personal debt on graduation was: £3,462 in 1998/99 for UK full-time undergraduates; and £8,666 in 2002/03 for English and Welsh full-time undergraduates aged under 25.
Student loans are very different from commercial loans. Repayment of income-contingent loans is linked to income after leaving university and borrowers are not required to repay if their income is below £15,000 per year. Interest is linked to the rate of inflation, so in real terms borrowers repay no more than they borrowed. Graduates who take out their first student loan in or after 2008/09, and enter into repayment in or after April 2012, will also be able to take a repayment holiday of up to five years.
From the 2008/09 academic year, increased income thresholds for the maintenance grant, will help a wider range of students and their families. I expect that one third of students will be eligible for a full grant of £2,835 in 2008/09, and a further third will be eligible for a partial grant.
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