Chamber and committees

Discretionary fund guidance is issued to all colleges and universities at the beginning of each academic year. The discretionary fund guidance includes details of the funding available to all students with childcare expenses, including postgraduate students.

A link to a copy of the current guidance can be found at:

http://www.saas.gov.uk/student_support/other_funding.htm#discretionary.

The following tables show the funding allocated to higher education institutions (HEIs) and colleges in Scotland between 2004-05 and 2008-09, along with equivalent amounts at 2004-05 values (adjusted using HM Treasury GDP deflators) and the annual change of 2004-05 equivalent values.

Table 1. Funding Invested in Scottish HEIs in Edinburgh and the Lothians (£000): 2004-05 to 2009-10

	Academic Year
Institution	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Edinburgh College of Art	8,240	8,821	9,895	9,945	9,541
Edinburgh University	134,006	148,693	162,865	176,905	183,524
Heriot-Watt University	33,926	35,554	39,082	41,258	42,672
Edinburgh Napier University	38,586	40,390	45,830	56,570	54,753
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh	14,297	13,470	13,674	14,184	16,129
total	229,055	246,928	271,346	298,862	306,619
2004-05 value	229,055	242,526	257,853	276,091	275,632
annual change in real terms	-	5.9%	6.3%	7.1%	-0.2%

Source: Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

2004-05 value calculated using HM Treasury GDP deflators December 2010 update.

Table 2. Funding Invested in Scotland''s Colleges in Edinburgh and the Lothians (£000s): 2004-05 to 2009-10

	Academic Year
College/Region	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Edinburgh colleges
Edinburgh''s Telford College	29,924	27,045	35,495	36,935	37,906
Jewel and Esk College	14,127	15,264	24,900	39,096	21,028
Stevenson College	19,938	22,283	30,589	28,264	29,572
Lothian colleges
Newbattle Abbey College	328	345	361	371	383
Oatridge College	3,279	5,139	6,432	4,263	4,636
West Lothian College	12,737	13,153	44,193	14,193	14,732
Total	80,332	83,229	141,970	123,122	108,258
2004-05 value	80,332	81,746	134,911	113,741	97,317
annual change in real terms	-	1.8%	65.0%	-15.7%	-14.4%

 Source: Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

2004-05 value calculated using HM Treasury GDP deflators December 2010 update.

Figures from 2006-07 to 2009-10 are made up of gross resources, notional fees, fee waiver (initial allocation), bursary allocation and capital grants, while the figures for 2005-06 are partly made up of grant in aid instead of gross resources.

Funding for bursaries for full-time higher education (HE) students in Scotland is allocated through the Students Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS). Table 1 shows the amount (in pounds sterling) paid as bursaries to HE students in Edinburgh and Lothian regions from 2005-06 to 2009-10 by SAAS. The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) allocates funding for bursaries for full-time further education (FE) students studying at Scottish colleges to the institutions who then decide how this money will be allocated. Table 2 shows how much funding was allocated to Scottish colleges for FE students in each year from 2005-06 to 2009-10.

Table 1. Total bursary payments to students studying in Edinburgh and Lothians, 2005-06 to 2009-10 (£''s)

Edinburgh HEIs	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Queen Margaret University	767,819	800,871	849,905	841,593	884,398
Edinburgh College of Art	346,226	350,422	335,669	301,732	301,885
Edinburgh University	3,308,770	3,381,058	3,442,589	3,267,326	3,494,054
Napier University	2,844,350	2,981,877	3,067,710	3,174,760	3,275,309
Heriot-Watt University	2,033,102	2,028,946	2,056,968	2,016,075	2,323,622
Edinburgh Colleges	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Edinburgh''s Telford College	763,690	848,894	752,821	714,917	844,167
Stevenson College	467,640	431,289	426,997	442,837	498,981
Lothians Colleges	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Oatridge Agricultural College	125,282	105,603	94,635	83,337	93,686
West Lothian College	249,024	287,451	279,976	200,969	299,342
Jewel and Esk Valley College	475,981	422,118	495,880	440,538	479,700

Source: Students Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS).

Notes:

1. Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) includes students from Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Ayr. It was not possible to separate the students who are at the different campuses, therefore SAC has not been included as an Edinburgh institution.

2. SAAS provide financial support for higher education (HE) students. This encompasses students on courses at HNC and HND levels and degree and post graduate course levels.

3. The data in this table only includes mainstream students funded by SAAS. Students on pre-registration nursing or midwifery courses are funded through the NMSB scheme and are not included in these figures.

4. The bursary included in the total figures is Young Students'' Bursary. This is the only bursary that Scottish students studying in Scotland were eligible for between 2005-06 and 2009-10.

Table 2. Total bursary funding to colleges studying in Edinburgh and Lothians,
2005-06 to 2009-10 (£''s)

Edinburgh Colleges	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Edinburgh''s Telford College	2,441,659	2,746,050	2,687,411	2,961,324	3,552,944
Stevenson College	1,864,943	2,097,509	2,164,474	2,638,576	2,911,232
Lothians HEIs	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Oatridge Agricultural College	356,698	414,281	413,188	512,470	572,242
West Lothian College	977,562	1,079,000	1,139,508	1,231,406	1,302,431
Jewel and Esk Valley College	1,043,917	1,389,652	1,165,197	1,450,441	1,773,488

Source: Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

Our woodland creation targets are mainly achieved through grant support under the Scotland Rural Development Programme together with the Forest Leasing Scheme and some direct planting undertaken by Forestry Commission Scotland. The 2011-12 Draft Budget provides sufficient funding to meet 10,000 hectares of woodland creation and we have actually increased grants available for forestry by £8.9 million to £36 million.

Our policy is to continue to allow sufficient funding to achieve 10,000 hectares each year, which will deliver the 100 million trees target by 2015.

Mitigation can be identified at the strategic level through the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Habitats Regulations Appraisal (HRA) processes. The Scottish Government has undertaken a strategic SEA and HRA for offshore wind energy in Scottish Territorial Waters. An SEA for marine renewables (wave and tidal) was undertaken in 2007. Work is currently beginning on an Appraisal of Sustainability for marine renewables which will refresh the 2007 SEA and also include a strategic level HRA. Further detailed assessment and identification of appropriate mitigation measures for individual developments must be made at the project level.

The Survey, Deploy and Monitor policy, which is currently being developed by Marine Scotland and SNH, will provide a pragmatic, risk based approach to allow the deployment of renewables and will be a key tool to facilitate the delivery of initial demonstration projects. In addition, research and the demonstration strategy are focused on tackling environmental issues.

The licensing process delivers mitigation by ensuring that any licence issued for relevant activities has appropriate conditions. Any conditions put in place with regard to a licence would be enforced by Marine Scotland.

A strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of the National Renewables Infrastructure Plan (N-RIP) was undertaken, in accordance with the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005, and the Environmental Report was published for consultation in September 2010. The purpose of the SEA was to identify potential environmental effects and measures for their mitigation, and to ensure that this information is made available when decisions are made by site owners to progress individual sites contained within the N-RIP. In this way, it was considered that the SEA would assist site developers and investors by providing information about the potential environmental issues pertaining to the development of the individual sites, and how they can best be overcome.

A considerable amount of work is currently being undertaken on the potential environmental effects of offshore wind, wave and tidal renewable energy in Scotland and across the UK.

The Scottish Government is working with other regulators, scientific bodies and industry to deliver a co-ordinated environmental research and monitoring programme to tackle gaps in knowledge and facilitate the commissioning of research projects to inform the licensing process and ensure good environmental data is available to planners, regulators and developers.

The current work programme consists of 19 ongoing research projects which are carried out by a range of organisations including Marine Scotland Science and research institutes. The total funding for these projects is £1.3 million, of which just over £1 million has been provided by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government is working with the Natural Environment Research Council to develop a series of three new research projects which address aspects of the environmental interactions of marine renewable energy developments.

The Scottish Government has not had any discussions with Research Councils UK on this matter, but has held discussions with the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) on research collaboration. Marine Scotland will be involved in the steering groups for a number of relevant projects.

This information is not held centrally and I have asked the Chief Executive of Scottish Water to reply to the member.

The expected income to Forestry Commission Scotland by 2020 is £30 million per year from the development of renewable energy facilities on the national forest estate.