Chamber and committees

This information is published in table 3.3 of a supplementary dataset to the National Statistics publication Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland, No 1: 2010 Edition available on the Scottish Government website at: www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/pupilsupdata.

This information is published in table 3.3 of a supplementary dataset to the National Statistics publication Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland, No 1: 2010 Edition available on the Scottish Government website at www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/pupilsupdata.

Scottish Government guidance on the Reshaping Care Change Fund for 2012-13, to be issued later this year, makes clear the expectation on Partnerships to increase the proportion of funding allocated to preventative and anticipatory care and proactive care and support at home.

Partnerships will be required to record this information, using Integrated Resource Framework mechanisms for analysing spend, activity and variation, in their Change Plans. Progress will be monitored over the whole course of the Change Fund lifecycle.

Information on childcare vouchers for employers is available on HMRC’s website. There have been no specific steps to raise awareness of childcare vouchers among voluntary and private sector employers in Scotland since the January-June 2009 project to do so. However, information is available to voluntary and private sector employees on the Scottish Childcare Information Service website and the Scottish Government website, as well as HMRC’s website.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. I will ask the Chief Executive of Skills Development Scotland to respond to you.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. I will ask the Chief Executive of Skills Development Scotland to respond to you.

Institutions of higher education must satisfy themselves of the accuracy and veracity of the residency claimed by an applicant in order to assess eligibility for regulated fee status. This can include, but is not limited to, confirming the address of the school attended by the applicant, the address registered with UCAS, the address to which any child benefit with respect to the applicant is registered and the address of the parental home.

Where supported fees are concerned, the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) must agree with an institutions assessment that a student has ‘home’ status before such fees are paid.

Our systems already guard against this. Purchasing or owning a home in Scotland does not in itself qualify an applicant for eligibility for regulated fee status and student support. An applicant must demonstrate that they meet all the relevant residency criteria which includes being ordinarily resident in Scotland.

The test that has to be met is whether the applicant is ordinarily resident in Scotland. In general terms, an applicant would not be considered ordinarily resident in a second home.

I refer the member to the answers to questions S4W-03768 on 16 November 2011 and S4W-03769 and S4W-03770 on 15 November 2011. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Chief Medical Officer and Chief Nursing Officer For Scotland will be writing out shortly to health professionals to raise awareness of the risks associated with Carbon Monoxide and ask for increased vigilance of the signs and symptoms of exposure in their patients.

The Health Protection Agency Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will once again be supporting the UK wide Carbon Monoxide Awareness week, commencing 21 November, by issuing press releases with supporting safety advice. Their web-sites contain useful information for householders and landlords on Carbon Monoxide safety. In addition Health Protection Scotland produced a Carbon Monoxide fact sheet which can be viewed at:

http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/enviro/nonhpspublicationsdetail.aspx?id=39585.