Recommendation 16

By October 2024, 45% of solvent borrowers had made at least one repayment on their loans, with the remaining 55% yet to make a repayment. The 45% had paid the Department £40.9 million in total, less than the £42.1 million it had scheduled to receive by then (97%).39 However, nine borrowers, two on the culture side and seven on the sports side, had also become insolvent, with loans totalling £46.1 million, almost 10% of the total loans awarded of £474 million. These nine insolvencies represented 7.5% of all borrowers against the Department’s expectations in December 2022 of 5% of borrowers failing in the first three years, with up to 14% failing by ten years. The Department also expects that it will not recover between £25 million and £29 million in the capital value of these loans and will miss out on a further £11 million of future interest.40