Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 1580 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S3W-12126

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings have taken place between ministers and student groups since May 2007, who attended and what was discussed.

Meetings regularly take place between Scottish ministers and student groups. The following table provides details of all meetings which have taken place between Scottish ministers and student groups since May 2007, including who attended and topics for discussion:

Minister	Meeting with	Topic	Date
Fiona Hyslop	HE, FE, student and union representatives	Roundtable Forum	6 June 2007
Fiona Hyslop	Presidents of Student Associations of each Scottish higher education institution, President of NUS and Convener of CHESS	Student Summit to discuss range of higher education issues	31 August 2007
Fiona Hyslop	HE, FE, student and union representatives	Roundtable Forum	23 October 2007
Fiona Hyslop	NUS Conference	Speech at the NUS conference	1 March 2008
Fiona Hyslop	President of NUS	Private meeting to discuss Joint Future Thinking Taskforce on Universities	6 March 2008
Fiona Hyslop	NUS and The joint Future Thinking Taskforce on Universities	NUS contribution to Taskforce	16 March 2008
Fiona Hyslop	Student representatives from around the country	Student Summit	28 April 2008
Jim Mather	UWS Student Union	Open Forum Q&A	25 February 2008
Nicola Sturgeon	Stow College Graduation Ceremony	Address and present awards	15 November 2007
Nicola Sturgeon	Meeting Dental Students Aberdeen	Attending Dental Institute	21 January 2008
Nicola Sturgeon	Addressing Glasgow Caledonian Students re. development of policy in health and social care	Address	4 April 2008
Shona Robison	Scottish Youth Parliament Health Committee	Public Health Issues	23 January 2008
Maureen Watt	National Union of Students Scotland Conference	Roles of students and how NUS can work with Government	21 November 2008
Elish Angiolini QC Lord Advocate	Law School students, University of Edinburgh	Criminal Law	6 November 2007

Question reference: S3W-12691

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the £12 million per annum to alleviate student hardship referred, to by the First Minister on 24 April 2008 (Official Report, c. 7933), is (a) additional funding and (b) time-limited.

The £12 million to which the First Minister referred on 24 April are the Discretionary Funds. These monies are made available by Scottish ministers and are intended to provide non-repayable assistance for students in financial difficulties in order for them to access and/or continue in higher education. This is not an additional package of funding but has been in place for several years. This funding is not time-limited.

Question reference: S3W-12688

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will outline further details of the £38 million package of grants for part-time learners in higher education, referred to by the First Minister on 24 April 2008 (Official Report, c. 7933), showing (a) over how many years the funding will be provided, (b) the eligibility criteria for the funding, (c) the distribution mechanism used for the funding and (d) how many students will be eligible for the funding

(a) We will introduce a £500 part-time higher education (HE) grant from academic year 2008-09 for all new and existing students. Budget provision has been made for £12 million/£13 million/£13 million for this over the period of the spending review (£38 million in total). This includes an additional £1 million annually for the institutions'' discretionary funds.

(b) The eligibility criteria for the funding is that students must:

be ordinarily resident in Scotland

be over the age of 16

earn £18,000 or less or be on benefits

not be in receipt of a fee waiver from the learning provider

be studying at 50% or more of a full-time HNC, HND, or

undergraduate degree (SCQF Level 7-10).

(c) The part-time HE grant will be delivered through a simplified Individual Learning Account (ILA Scotland) model and the grant will be paid directly to the university or college.

(d) We expect that this new funding will benefit around 20,000 part-time HE students.

Question reference: S3W-12692

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide further details of the (a) £30 million available for 2010-11 to support students further and (b) consultation that is taking place, referred to by the First Minister on 24 April 2008 (Official Report, c. 7933).

Question reference: S3W-12685

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many students will benefit from changes to the eligibility for the young students bursary from the 2008-09 academic year, including those under the age of 25 and with a child over three, and by how much in total.

It is only those students under the age of 25 and with a child over three who will benefit from changes to the eligibility for the Young Students'' Bursary from the 2008-09 academic year. I refer the member to the question S3W-10207 answered on 3 March 2008. 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/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S3W-12689

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will outline further details of its increasing the threshold for the non-medical personal helpers element of the disabled students allowance by 60%, referred to by the First Minister on 24 April 2008 (Official Report, c. 7933), showing how much additional funding will be provided to students through this change and how many students will benefit.

Further details on the non-medical personal helpers element of the disabled students allowance can be found on SAAS'' website at:

http://www.saas.gov.uk/student_support/special_circumstances/dsa_what_we_pay.htm.

In terms of the increase, the upper threshold for the non-medical personal helpers element of the Disabled Students'' Allowance (DSA) will from academic year 2008-09 rise from £12,420 to £20,000. In terms of numbers of students who will stand to benefit, last year there were around 39 students who reached the maximum threshold for non-medical personal help. The number of students who will benefit from the increased threshold in 2008-09 will be dependent on their assessed needs when they apply to SAAS for student support.

Question reference: S3W-12683

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people will be affected by changes to the means test for higher education students from the 2008-09 academic year and how much the Scottish Government will save in total (a) annually and (b) over the next three years.

The number of people affected by changes to the means test for higher education students is unknown as the information on which this calculation needs to be made was not recorded by the previous Scottish Executive. I have therefore asked SAAS to record this data from 2008-09 onwards and my officials will closely monitor the numbers affected by these changes.

The changes to the means test are not intended to generate savings. They are intended to bring about a fairer system of student support for all our students. If any savings were to accrue from these changes, however, this money will be redistributed within the general student support system.

Question reference: S3W-12681

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 13 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether students' earned income will be assessed for providing support for (a) further and (b) higher education in the 2008-09 academic year and, if so, over what threshold.

Question reference: S3W-12677

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 13 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average earnings are of working students (a) exempt and (b) not exempt from council tax.

Question reference: S3W-12684

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 13 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will spend any savings from changes to the means test from the 2008-09 academic year for higher education students.