Agenda item 2 is consideration of new petitions, the first of which is PE2036. I am happy to say to Rebecca Smith, who lodged the petition—as I say to all those who might be tuning in to hear consideration of their petition—that, ahead of the committee’s first consideration of the petition, we seek the view of the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament information centre, SPICe, which is the Parliament’s independent research service. The committee does that so that we can have an informed initial discussion, rather than postponing a discussion until we have sought that information.
The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to write off student loan debts incurred by paramedic science students before the current bursary was introduced. The SPICe briefing notes that student loan repayment conditions are set out in the Repayment of Student Loans (Scotland) Regulations 2000 and the Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations 2009, as amended. The briefing explains that, under current legislation, student loan debt can be cancelled in the following situations only: 30 years after the loan holder became eligible to repay it, if the loan holder dies or if the loan holder becomes permanently unfit for work.
The Scottish Government’s position is that students who commenced their paramedic science degree before the introduction of the bursary will still need to pay back any student loans that they have received. The response states that there are no plans to write-off previous student loans for that cohort of students. That seems to be a fairly clear direction. Do colleagues have any suggestions?
