Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-20008

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 28 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18578 by Fiona Hyslop on the 22 December 2008, how many students received the (a) Lone Parent’s Grant and (b) Lone Parent’s Childcare Grant in the last academic year for which figures are available, broken down by income.

The following table shows the number of higher education students who received Lone Parent''s Grant and the number who received Lone Parent''s Childcare Grant in academic year 2007-08 broken down by parental/spousal income.

Income	Number of Students receiving Lone Parent''s Grant	Number of Students Receiving Lone Parent''s Childcare Grant
< £10k	40	25
£10,000 - £19,999	45	25
£20,000 - £29,999	30	20
£30,000 and above	10	30
Income not declared/required	15	5
Exempt from Parental/Spousal Contribution	2,775	1,275
Total	2,920	1,375

Source: Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) academic year 2007-08.

Student numbers have been rounded up or down to the nearest five.

Income bands are based on residual parental or, in the case of students who are married or in a civil partnership, spousal income. This is income after deductions allowed by SAAS have been subtracted.

Lone Parent''s Grant is available on an income assessed basis to students who are single, widowed, divorced or no longer living with a partner and are bringing up children. An additional grant, Lone Parent''s Childcare Grant, is available to recipients of Lone Parent''s Grant who have to pay for registered or formal child care.

Question reference: S3W-19973

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-19186 by Fiona Hyslop on 14 January 2009, what savings will be made in the Education and Lifelong Learning budget, and to which budget lines, to pay for the additional £12.4 million cost associated with unwinding provisions for student loans.

Question reference: S3W-19974

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18994 by Fiona Hyslop on 8 January 2009, how much discretionary funding was returned to Student Awards Agency for Scotland for redistribution in each of the last five years, broken down by institution.

The following table lists the funds returned each year by each institution. Information for year 2007-08 is still in the process of being gathered and will be available at the end of February.

As stated in the answer to question S3W-18994 on 8 January 2009, these returned funds are then redistributed on the basis of application from institutions in the following academic year.

The returned funds have been re-distributed each year from 2005-06. For example, funds returned for 2005-06 are made available to institutions in 2006-07 as additional funding. Institutions are required to make requests for this additional funding.

Prior to 2005-06, any returned funds resulted in an underspend against allocation.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Institution	2006-07	2005-06	2004-05	2003-04
Aberdeen College	82,714.12	6,812.26	19,993.23	25,346.36
Angus College	9,500.35	61,466.68		53,382.00
Anniesland College				101.00
Ayr College		4,367.69		54,700.94
Banff and Buchan College			85.00
Barony College
Borders College	7,478.85	6,955.00	38,065.90	16,386.93
Cardonald College				4,023.19
Central College of Commerce		16,747.00
Clackmannan College				8,125.00
Clydebank College	28,518.59	17,692.71	21,810.72	36,834.73
Coatbridge College		2,780.50
Cumbernauld College		788.87
Dumfries and Galloway College	407.51	1,786.80	1,115.29	173.06
Dundee College
Edinburgh''s Telford College	148,49.00	13,052.00	23,350.00	11,049.00
Elmwood College		784.00	87.00	929.00
Forth Valley College	2,011.00	12,630.37
Glasgow Metropolitan College
Glasgow College of Nautical Studies	3,666.15	14,379.97	828.05	6,497.89
Adam Smith College (previously Fife)		20,000.00		76,861.83
James Watt College
Jewel and Esk Valley College	38,004.00	10,652.26	16,424.00	29,124.00
John Wheatley	3,429.42	1,027.38	5,453.18	4,942.33
Kilmarnock College
Langside College		10,105.16	25,745.32	43,484.68
Carnegie College	6,003.89	11,026.86
Motherwell College	6,680.56	11,149.68	12,712.73	15,455.67
Newbattle Abbey College
North Glasgow College		275.56
Oatridge Agricultural College	836.97	592.60
Reid Kerr College
South Lanarkshire College	5,426.35	13,381.35	2,458.87
Stevenson College	11,562.62		4,184.86
Stow College	24,326.00
West Lothian College		129,808.00
Aberdeen University	82,342.00	104,858.00	253,228.00	430,987.00
Bell College of Technology	19,921.35
Dundee University
Edinburgh College of Art
Edinburgh University	77,086.13	141,207.88
Glasgow Caledonian University	79,988.84	290,276.06	95,594.86	66,533.05
Glasgow School of Art		17,559.35	1,373.62	9,948.64
Glasgow University
Heriot Watt University	28,098.03	135.00	72,778.00	565,016.00
Napier University	11,093.36	69,674.46	26,446.85	17,071.44
Queen Margaret University College		98,033.61
Robert Gordon University			225.73
RSAMD		3,043.58
Scottish Agricultural College	4,500.33	1,072.95		52.64
St Andrews University
Stirling University	16,635.00	239.00		465.00
Strathclyde University				3,702.00
University of Abertay, Dundee			2,460.53	718.00
University of West of Scotland (previously Bell college and Paisley uni)				72,247.28
Open University	4,129.42	51,238.67	222,256.00
UHIMI	40,558.70	71,147.70	32,079.25	305,393.40
Total	609,768.26	1,216,742.96	878,756.99	1,859,552.06

Question reference: S3W-19990

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many higher education students at college receive young student bursaries (YSB), broken down by income, and what the total amount was of YSB received by such students.

The table shows the number of higher education students studying at colleges who received Young Students Bursaries (YSB) in academic year 2007-08, and the amount received, broken down by parental/spousal income.

Income Band	Number of College Students	Amount YSB (£000)
< £10k	2,895	6,873
£10,000 - £19,999	2,885	6,787
£20,000 - £29,999	2,065	2,673
£30,000 and above	520	162
Income not declared/required	830	1,982
Exempt from Parental/Spousal Contribution	155	344
Total	9,345	18,821

Source: Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS).

Notes:

Student numbers have been rounded up or down to the nearest five.

Monetary amounts have been rounded to the nearest thousand and are quoted in thousands.

Income bands are based on residual parental or, in the case of students who are married or in a civil partnership, spousal income. This is income after deductions allowed by SAAS have been subtracted.

Question reference: S3W-19987

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will lay before the Parliament a report assessing the impact that abolishing the graduate endowment has had in relation to widening access to higher education.

Question reference: S3W-19988

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-19196 by Fiona Hyslop on 15 January 2009, what changes to secondary legislation would be required to implement each of the options outlined in the Supporting a Smarter Scotland consultation paper.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-19196 on 15 January 2009, which makes clear that we do not anticipate that any legislative action would be required to implement option 1, 2 or 3 but given the consultation is seeking the widest views possible, some respondents may suggest different changes to the student support system which could have legislative changes.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Question reference: S3W-20009

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 27 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many students in receipt of the (a) Lone Parent’s Grant and (b) Lone Parent’s Childcare Grant also received the Young Students’ Bursary in the last academic year for which information is available.

Question reference: S3W-19969

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 26 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what it would cost to extend the Young Students’ Bursary scheme to (a) independent young students and (b) mature students using the scheme’s current income thresholds.

We have costed how much it would cost to extend YSB to independent students and this is set out in the consultation paper as option 1b. The consultation paper does not consider the option of extending the Young Student''s Bursary scheme to (a) independent young students and (b) mature students using the scheme''s current income thresholds. As a result, no costings have been prepared. These would be prepared in due course if the Scottish Government decided to examine those options in more detail, based on the responses we receive to the consultation.

Question reference: S3W-19984

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 26 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-19181 by Fiona Hyslop on 15 January 2009, whether the recent decision to uprate student loans by 2.6% to maintain their real-terms value required negotiations with HM Treasury due to the budgetary implications; if so, what discussions took place and what the outcomes were, and, if not, for what reasons discussions were not considered to be required.

No negotiations with HM Treasury were required in the recent decision to uprate student loans by 2.6%. This is because the uprating figure of 2.6% is based on the Treasury''s mid-May forecasts of the rise in RPI-x during the calendar years 2009 and 2010. These figures are published in the Treasury document: Forecasts for the UK economy “ A Comparison of Independent Forecasts, which is available at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/200805forcomp.pdf.

Question reference: S3W-19977

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 23 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-19180 by Fiona Hyslop on 15 January 2009, at which year the Student Income, Expenditure and Debt survey will look.

Chamber and committees