Chamber and committees

I am delighted to announce thenew rates of support for students in further and higher education for academic year2008-09. I am today placing in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre details of the rates of those loans, bursaries and grants, which will be available to eligibleundergraduate and postgraduate students in full-time higher education.

Ageneral uprating factor of 2.5%, in line with inflation, will be applied to theexisting schemes of support in 2008-09, thus maintaining their value in realterms.

the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has also agreed to maintain the alignment betweenthe further and higher education sectors by, where appropriate, uprating the supportavailable to further education students by 2.5%.

A copy of these rates is alsobeing placed in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (44263).

Information onsmall businesses in the form requested is not held centrally. However,information on the number and rateable value of non-domestic properties whichmay be eligible for relief under the Small Business Bonus scheme is availablefor each of the local authority areas concerned on the Scottish Assessors Portalwww.saa.gov.uk. This information is shown asfollows:

Number of Properties	Rateable Value of Property
	Up to £8,000	£8,001-£10,000	£10,001-£15,000	Total up to £15,000
South Lanarkshire	4,956	626	905	6,487

Notes:

(i)The rateable value ranges shown in the table correspond to those on page 12 of the Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007.

(ii)The table shows the number of non-domestic properties, excluding zero-ratedproperties, with rateable values of up to £15,000 in all of South Lanarkshirelocal authority area. The Hamilton South parliamentary constituency fallswithin this area.

(iii)The number of eligible businesses will be lower than the number of non-domesticproperties in each area, because some businesses have more than one property.This may affect eligibility for relief under the Small Business Bonus Scheme,which will depend on:

thecombined rateable value of all properties in Scotland which a business owns, leases or isotherwise entitled to occupy;

whetherthe property is eligible for one of the existing rates relief schemes;

thelevel of other public sector assistance received by the business.

Information onsmall businesses in the form requested is not held centrally. However,information on the number and rateable value of non-domestic properties whichmay be eligible for relief under the Small Business Bonus scheme is availablefor each of the local authority areas concerned on the Scottish Assessors Portalwww.saa.gov.uk. This information is shownas follows:

Number of Properties	Rateable Value of Property
	Up to £8,000	£8,001-£10,000	£10,001-£15,000	Total up to £15,000
South Lanarkshire	4,956	626	905	6,487

Notes:

(i) The rateablevalue ranges shown in the table correspond to those on page 12 of the ScottishBudget: Spending Review 2007.

(ii) The tableshows the number of non-domestic properties, excluding zero rated properties,with rateable values of up to £15,000 in all of South Lanarkshire local authority area. East Kilbride parliamentary constituency falls within this area.

(iii) The numberof eligible businesses will be lower than the number of non-domestic propertiesin each area, because some businesses have more than one property. This mayaffect eligibility for relief under the Small Business Bonus Scheme, which willdepend on:

the combinedrateable value of all properties in Scotland which abusiness owns, leases or is otherwise entitled to occupy;

whether theproperty is eligible for one of the existing rates relief schemes, and

the level ofother public sector assistance received by the business.

Information on smallbusinesses in the form requested is not held centrally. However, information onthe number and rateable value of non-domestic properties which may be eligible forrelief under the Small Business Bonus scheme is available for the local authorityarea concerned on the Scottish Assessors Portal (www.saa.gov.uk). This information is shown asfollows:

Number of Properties by Local Authority Area	Rateable Value of Property
	Up to  £8,000	£8,001-£10,000	£10,001-£15,000	Total  Up To £15,000
Falkirk	2,702	281	406	3,389

Notes:

(i) The rateable value ranges shown in the table correspond to those on page 12 of the Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007.

(ii)The table shows the number of non-domestic properties (excluding zero-rated subjects)with rateable values of up to £15,000 in all of Falkirk, which is the local authority area inwhich the Falkirk East parliamentary constituency is situated.

(iii)The number of eligible businesses will be lower than the number of non-domesticproperties in each area, because some businesses have more than one property. Thismay affect eligibility for relief under the Small Business Bonus Scheme, which willdepend on:

thecombined rateable value of all properties in Scotland which a business owns, leases or isotherwise entitled to occupy;

whetherthe property is eligible for one of the existing rates relief schemes, and

thelevel of other public sector assistance received by the business.

I am pleased to announcethe details of our new support for part-time students studying in highereducation (HE) for academic session 2008-09.

We will introducea £500 part-time HE fee grant from academic year 2008-09 for all new and existingstudents who earn £18,000 or less, and who are studying at 50% or more of a full-timecourse. This will replace the current £500 loan and will be delivered through asimplified ILA Scotland model.

People who chooseto study part-time have very different support needs and any improved package offinancial support must recognise these differences. We believe that colleges anduniversities are best placed to assess these individual needs. We therefore intendto increase the amount of funding allocated to institutions’ hardship funds by £1million annually. This additional discretionary support will enable institutionsto provide more flexible support for part-time students, and can be used for studycosts, travel costs and child care costs, based on individual need rather than fixedincome thresholds.

I am pleased to announcethat the Scottish Government’s response is being published today. Copies will beavailable in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 43789).

I am pleased to announcethat the Skills Strategy for Scotland is being published today. A key principleof our strategy is developing coherent and cohesive structures for skills developmentand delivery. As an initial step we are merging learndirect scotland with Careers Scotland to form the nucleus of a body focusedon skills.  Skills for Scotland will be available in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 43481).

The provision of directsupport to deafblind people is a matter for local agencies. The government does,however, provide funding and support to agencies who work with the deafblind community.Deafblind Scotland receives core funding under section 10 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act. Deafblind Scotland are also active contributors to the Sensory Impairment Action Plan SteeringGroup on behalf of the deafblind community. People who are deafblind are contributingto the delivery of sensory impairment training to local authorities with the developmentof National Occupational Standards for social care staff. The Scottish Governmentwill continue to work with representative organisations to pursue improved servicesand support for people who are deafblind.

The Crown Office andProcurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) completed its Review of the Investigation andProsecution of Sexual Offences in Scotland last year and published its reportin June 2006. A copy of the Report is available on the COPFS website at:www.crownoffice.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/9/0000174.pdf.

An implementationteam has been established to bring into effect the 50 recommendations. Seventeenof these have been implemented and work is scheduled and underway to implement theothers.

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) are currently conducting a review and evaluation of practices and procedures in respect of the investigation of rape and serious sexual crime, the ultimate objective being to improve attrition rates and overall service delivery. This work is being conducted in conjunction with the police''s relevant partner agencies, and no timescale has been set for its conclusion. It will be a matter for ACPOS whether to publish this review.