- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 January 2009
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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.
Answer
The additional £12.4 million cost associated with the unwinding provisions for student loans are being met from other non-cash budget savings associated with the provision of student loans within the overall Student Awards Agency for Scotland''s budgets.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2009
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2009
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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.
Answer
A report assessing the impact that abolishing the graduate endowment fee has had in relation to widening access to higher education will be laid before the Parliament as required by 4 April 2009.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2009
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2009
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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.
Answer
In academic year 2007-08 135 recipients of Lone Parent''s Grant received a Young Student''s Bursary (YSB). Eighty recipients of Lone Parent''s Childcare Grant received a YSB.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2009
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 January 2009
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 January 2009
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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.
Answer
The Scottish Survey of Income, Expenditure and Debt 2007-08 will provide data for Scottish domiciled students for the academic year 2007-08.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 January 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what efforts it is making to ensure that there is provision of effective justice services throughout Scotland.
Answer
Protecting Scotland''s Communities: Fair, Fast and Flexible Justice published on 17 December 2008 sets out our plan for delivering a coherent offender management strategy building on effective justice services. Our plan incorporates the improvements in train through Summary Justice Reform, the findings of the independent Scottish Prisons Commission and the 2007 Review of Community Penalties.
Tangible examples of our achievements are the £11 million invested in a range of projects for young people through the Cashback for Communities scheme; the £200,000 invested to support the collective violence initiative; £4 million record level of funding to Victim Support Scotland enabling them to support 180,000 victims and witnesses, and the publication of the first national drugs strategy in a decade.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 20 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive when it estimates that student loan repayments will match student loan new lend and what its yearly estimates of new lend and repayment levels are to that date.
Answer
The Scottish Government estimates that, based on current trends being maintained in the future, it will be 2020-21 when we reach the point of new loans issued matching annual repayments. Estimates of repayments and loans issued can and do vary year-on-year due a number of factors, such as, for example, graduate wage levels and projections of the student population. As a result the projections provided should be viewed as indicative only.
Table 1 illustrates expected loan issues and repayments until 2020-21:
Projected Loans Issued and Repayments (£ Million)
| | Loans Issued | Repayments |
| 2008-09 | 180.3 | 56 |
| 2009-10 | 190.7 | 66 |
| 2010-11 | 200.7 | 76 |
| 2011-12 | 196.8 | 86 |
| 2012-13 | 193.0 | 96 |
| 2013-14 | 189.2 | 106 |
| 2014-15 | 185.5 | 116 |
| 2015-16 | 181.9 | 126 |
| 2016-17 | 178.4 | 136 |
| 2017-18 | 174.9 | 146 |
| 2018-19 | 171.5 | 156 |
| 2019-20 | 168.1 | 166 |
| 2020-21 | 164.9 | 176 |
