Britain will need to recognise upfront from next year that many students will never fully repay government loans, a move that will increase the official measure of public borrowing by billions of pounds, statisticians said on Monday.
British student loan repayments are linked to future earnings, and many students are not expected to earn enough over their working lives to fully repay the loans and interest before they are automatically written off, 30 years after graduation.
About 45 percent of loans and interest are not expected to be repaid, the government told a parliament committee earlier this year, which in turn asked Britain’s Office for National Statistics to factor this into measures of public finances.
Currently, student loan write-offs are not required to be reflected in the public finances until they take place several decades in the future.
But next year - probably from September - the ONS will treat part of the loan as a grant for statistical purposes.
This will increase annual public sector net borrowing as a share of the economy by about 0.6 percent, equivalent to 12 billion pounds for the current year, the ONS said.
There will be no effect on public sector net debt.
Transport minister Chris Grayling will sign an agreement with Switzerland on Monday to ensure air services continue to operate between the two countries after Brexit.
Britain is due to leave the European Union in March next year, but uncertainty over how, or even if, Brexit will happen has increased the possibility of the country exiting without a deal on departure terms - a scenario that some companies said would usher in chaos.
“The UK aviation sector is the biggest in Europe and will play an even more crucial role as we further develop as an outward looking global nation,” Grayling said in a statement.
“These agreements will ensure Britain continues to prosper as we leave the EU and I’m confident the UK will reach a mutually beneficial deal, whilst we continue to prepare for all eventualities.”
His department said the new bilateral deal guaranteed the terms of the current EU-Switzerland agreement on air services, safeguarding the route that carried 6.8 million passengers by air in 2017.
The government is also launching the Aviation 2050 consultation, which proposes new measures including commitments to signing more air service agreements, the department said.
“Our aviation sector is world-leading and the Aviation 2050 strategy will promote success in the coming decades,” Liz Sugg, aviation minister, said.
“Our ambition is to expand our international connections, boost trade and investment and strengthening domestic links to support businesses and travelling passengers.”
Political reporter(wp/Reuters): A second Brexit referendum would do “irreparable damage” to politics and “break faith” with the British people, Prime Minister Theresa May will say on Monday, rejecting what some see as the only way to break an impasse.
But May and her ministers have repeatedly ruled out a new ballot, saying it would deepen divisions over Britain’s biggest decision since World War Two and betray voters who narrowly backed leaving the EU at a 2016 referendum.
That increases the risk of Britain leaving without a deal in less than four months, a scenario some businesses fear would be catastrophic for the world’s fifth largest economy.
The political and economic uncertainty over Brexit is having an impact, with data on Monday showing a drop in consumer spending, falling house prices and growing pessimism in household finances.
“Let us not break faith with the British people by trying to stage another referendum,” May will tell lawmakers, according to extracts of her statement released in advance.
“Another vote which would do irreparable damage to the integrity of our politics, because it would say to millions who trusted in democracy, that our democracy does not deliver. Another vote which would likely leave us no further forward than the last,” she will say.
Business minister Greg Clark said a second vote would only increase uncertainty for the country.
May returns to parliament to update lawmakers on Brexit after a week in which she cancelled a vote on her deal because it was set to be defeated and survived an attempt by some of her own lawmakers to oust her.
The Labour Party, which is under pressure from smaller opposition parties to propose a motion of no confidence against the government this week, said on Sunday it would seek to force May to bring the deal back to parliament for a vote before Christmas.
May used a visit to Brussels last week to call on EU leaders to offer assurances over the so-called Northern Irish “backstop” - an insurance policy to prevent the return of a hard border between the British province and EU-member Ireland that its critics fear will tie Britain to the bloc in the long term.
But while EU leaders said they were willing to help May, they warned the British prime minister she could not renegotiate the deal, agreed earlier this year.
Girls leaving primary school in inner London outperformed children from every other part of the country in their exam results, new figures reveal.
An outstanding 75 per cent of girls passed reading, writing and maths SATs in inner London boroughs this year, meaning they mastered the three Rs.
This is the highest result for any group in England.
Boys in inner London also did better than boys in any other area, with 67 per cent passing all three tests.
The top performing primary schools in London
These are the nine primary schools in London scoring 100 per cent, ranked according to the number who passed reading, writing and maths SATs:
Hampstead Parochial CofE, Camden
Our Lady of Victories Catholic, Wandsworth
Riverside, Southwark
Sir William Burrough, Tower Hamlets
St John and St James CofE, Hackney
St Peter’s, Hammersmith and Fulham
The Cathedral School of St Saviour and St Mary Overy, Southwark
The London Oratory School,
Hammersmith and Fulham
Trinity St Mary’s CofE, Wandsworth
The combined boys’ and girls’ results mean pupils in inner London easily outclassed children in the rest of the country, with outer London just behind.
London as a whole continues to excel, with 70 per cent of pupils passing all their tests compared with the national average of 65 per cent. This is an increase for London of four percentage points on last year.
The figures released by the department for education also reveal:
More than 12,000 London children - or 13 per cent - reached the higher standard in all three subjects. This is the best result in the country.
26 London Local Authorities have no underperforming schools - an improvement on 24 last year.
Just eight London schools did not reach the government’s floor standard, putting them at risk of being branded failing.
18 London schools were defined as “coasting” - five in inner London and 13 in outer London. This equates to 1 per cent of all London schools, which is the lowest percentage in the country.
Nationally, the percentage of children leaving primary school with a good grounding in the three Rs also increased. Sixty-four per cent of 11-year-olds who took SATs this year passed all three tests.
This is up from 61 per cent last year.
Overall, the number of schools considered to be under-performing has decreased, but 364 mainstream primaries in England still fell below the primary school floor standard.
A school is below the “floor” if fewer than 65 per cent of pupils meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, or if they do not make enough progress.
A spokesman for the department for education said the data shows the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is narrowing. The gap has closed by 13 per cent since 2001, and three per cent in the last year.
But further analysis by the BBC suggests if the slow pace of change remains the same, it will take 50 years to close the attainment gap, and poor pupils will not catch up until 2070.
This year, 51 per cent of the poorest pupils reached the expected level in their SATs, compared with 70 per cent of their better-off peers, leaving a gap of 19 percentage points.
School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said: “Standards are rising in our schools, with 86 per cent of schools now rated good or outstanding as of August 2018, compared to 68 per cent in 2010 and these statistics show that the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has closed by 13 per cent since 2011.
“Every child, regardless of their background, deserves a high quality education and opportunity to fulfil their potential.
"Headteachers are using the freedoms afforded by academy and free school status to make this a reality, as illustrated by the progress disadvantaged pupils in multi-academy trusts are making in writing and maths.”
Political reporter(wp/Reuters): Britain’s government is not preparing for a second referendum on Brexit, ministers said on Sunday, sticking to the script that Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal could still pass through parliament with a few changes. May delayed a vote last week on her agreement to leave the European Union because she was set to lose in parliament and has tried to secure “assurances” from the bloc to try to better sell it to sceptical lawmakers. Brussels said last week it was ready to help but warned her that she could not renegotiate the deal.
With less than four months before Britain is due to leave in March, Brexit, the biggest shift in trade and foreign policy for more than 40 years, is proving anything but smooth, complicated by the deep divisions in parliament and across the country.
With May facing deadlock in parliament over the deal and the EU offering little so far, more politicians are talking about the possibility of Britain leaving without an agreement or a second referendum that could stop Brexit from happening.
Asked if the government was preparing for a vote, education minister Damian Hinds told Sky News: “No, a second referendum would be divisive. We’ve had the people’s vote, we’ve had the referendum and now we’ve got to get on with implementing it.”
Trade minister Liam Fox also said a second referendum would “perpetuate” the deep divisions in Britain, adding that the prime minister was securing the necessary assurances to persuade parliament to back her deal.
He said that would take some time.
“It will happen over Christmas, it’s not going to happen this week, it’s not going to be quick, it will happen some time in the New Year,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.
But the longer it takes, voices urging a change of tack are getting louder and the pressure on the main opposition Labour Party to move against the government is rising.
May survived a no confidence vote among her Conservative lawmakers last week, but opposition parties are calling for Labour to propose a parliamentary motion of no confidence against the government this week.
Labour has repeatedly said it will call such a motion at “the best time”, or when it knows it can win, and for now will try to force the government to bring its deal to parliament sooner.
Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s policy chief for communities and local government, said: “We will be using whatever mechanisms we have at our disposal next week to try and force the government to bring forward that deal for a vote before
British Prime minister Teresa May take a faulty odd decession which will take to UK as alone country across the europe.
people of UK are protesting for this odd decission,but she want to alone her country from european union..UK will suffer for her strict odd decession later on..in business,education and all co-operation with EU and UK is 0 level from brexit effect.
we hope british prime minister will understand they matter of UK..how this country goes alone..how this country and its people effected for odd decission and she take decission again to join EU for greater intrest of British people.
