My partner has a debt of £4000 with lloyds which was 10 yrs ago. I'm told the debt is wiped after 5 or 10 yrs. Can you tell us what we can do please.

I believe UK law is the same as the US in that a debt never expires. What may expire is the right to use the legal system to collect the debt.

My partner borrowed money from a money lender called lloyds money lenders. They hadn't caught up with him for 9 yrs. He doesn't want to pay it. Not much money. Can he ignore the debt.

He can try. But eventually they will probably catch up with him.

If the creditor and show that the debtor has been purposefully avoiding repaying a debt they can enforce payment via a court judgement.
The debt it self never expires, just becomes more difficult to collect after 6 years.