Chamber and committees

Student loans are not made ona commercial basis, and individual risk is not assessed. They are long-term loansmade from public funds in accordance with eligibility criteria set out in legislation,and therefore the Student Loans Company administers and collects public debt.

Credit unions offer a valuableservice, but they compete in the open market. Loans are made on a commercial basis,and are often short-term. Credit unions assess the risk of the borrower not payingthe debt in the same way as other private lenders. There is therefore no directcomparison between credit unions and the Student Loans Company.

The Executive does not considerthat a compelling case has been made out for treating debt owed to credit unionsin the same way as debt owed to the Student Loans Company. There are therefore noplans to make any provision to that effect in the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc.(Scotland) Bill.

A range of surveys are used tomeasure both levels of satisfaction with public services and perceptions of standards.In many instances both topics are covered in the same surveys; these are describedin more detail as follows;

Scottish Household Survey (SHS)

The publication can be accessedusing the following link:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/16002/14048.

Scottish Social Attitudes Survey

The publication can be accessedusing the following link:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/08/18151621/16219.

Public Attitudes to the NHS

Two stand alone surveys of publicattitudes to the NHS were commissioned by the Health Department in 2000 and2004. The 2004 report can be accessed using the following link:

www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/government/panhss-00.asp

Bus Passenger Satisfaction Survey

The 2004 report can be accessed using the following link:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/08/09142637/26510

Growing Up in Scotland

The survey began in 2005 andthe results of the 2005 survey will be published in late autumn 2006.

The 2005 MORI Social Policy Monitorcarried questions about the public’s use of, and satisfaction with, a rangeof local government services in its first quarter survey. These were commissionedby the FCSD ASD.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-26048 on 1 June 2006. A range of surveys are used to measureboth levels of satisfaction with public services and perceptions of standards. Inmany instances both topics are covered in the same surveys. In addition, one-offsurveys are used from time to time by different departments with specific data needs.The duty of Best Value which the Scottish Executive has placed on Scotland’s publicservice organisations, encourages them to consider satisfaction with the servicesthey provide.

All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Executive considers thatall creditors should in general be treated equally in an insolvency processsuch as a trust deed, including credit union creditors. There is therefore noplan to treat debt due to credit unions as a priority debt.

The Debt Arrangement Scheme isbeing delivered in partnership with Money Advice Scotland and Citizens Advice Scotland, throughMoney Advice Training Resources Information and Consultancy Services (MATRICS).

The Executive is therefore workingwith MATRICS to encourage individual money advisers to become approved for the purposeof applying for debt payment programmes on behalf of debtors.

As part of that effort the Executivereviewed the scheme between December 2005 and February 2006. As a result of thatreview, the Executive announced on  24 May 2006 thatthe scheme would be amended to allow for a payment programme to include debt relief.

This change has been welcomedby the money advice sector, and it is hoped that it will lead to an increase inthe number of approved money advisers.

Further changes to the schemeare still being considered, and may be introduced after consultation with MATRICS.

The Financial Inclusion ActionPlan, published in January 2005, identified older people as one of the vulnerablegroups which might require additional help, such as the provision of financial informationin appropriate formats. We are working with other organisations, including thosewhich work particularly with older people, to develop this support.

The Executive is aware that thereare people who need debt relief but are unable to bankrupt themselves because arenot “apparently insolvent” under the current law, including people with no incomeand no assets.

The Executive set up a Debt ReliefWorking Group to look at the issue of access to bankruptcy under current law. Thegroup reported in June 2005, and the Executive is considering their recommendationsfor reform.

It is intended that considerationof the report will be completed in the near. A decision has yet to be made on whatmeasures should be introduced in the bill, if any.

The Executive intends that thereforms in the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc. (Scotland) Bill will strike a fairbalance between creditors and debtors. As part of striking the right balance, thediligence of arrestment and forthcoming will be reformed to offer much improveddebtor protections.

The new protections include aprotected minimum balance where a bank account is arrested, currently of £370. Thiswill make sure that all debtors on low incomes of any kind will have enough moneyto live on, including debtors being paid housing benefit. There is also protectionunder the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, which provides for housing benefit tobe paid direct to a landlord where a tenant is in substantial rent arrears.

There are currently thereforeno plans to exempt housing benefit from bank arrestment.

The consultation on the protectedtrust deed draft regulations closed on  28 April 2006,after a two week extension over Easter.Responses are available now onthe Scottish Executive website and an analysisof the responses will be published on the website by the end of May 2006. http://sh45inta/Publications/2006/05/10105143/0.

It is anticipated that the regulationswill be brought into force at the same time as the bankruptcy reforms in the Bankruptcyand Diligence etc. (Scotland) Bill are commenced, which will be at a date yet to bedecided.

 

The Executive undertook to reviewthe Debt Arrangement Scheme one year after implementation. The information gatheringphase of the review was completed at the end of January 2006, and we are consideringvarious amendments to the scheme.

One possible amendment is theintroduction of debt relief. Different ways of delivering debt relief are thereforeunder consideration, and they include both freezing of interest and compositionof debts.

The issue of implementation doesnot arise as a decision has yet to be made on including any form of debt reliefin the scheme.