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.

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Question reference: S4W-28271

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 November 2015

Two tables have been provided below which set out 1) the maximum bursary support available for students living at home; and 2) the maximum bursary support for students living away from home for years (a) 1979, (b) 1988, (c) 1997, (d) 2007. The figure for e) today is the same in both tables.

The maximum student bursary for each year prior to the current time was converted into 2015-16 (financial year) prices using the most recent HM Treasury deflators and guidance.

Students at home:

Year	Maximum student grant	Real term value (Financial year 2015-16 prices)
2015-16	£1,875	£1,875
2007-08	£1,550	£1,815
1997-98	£1,290	£1,904
1988-89	£1,500	£3,169
1979-80	£985	£3,952

Sources: HM Treasury GDP deflators (October 2015)

Note: Converted to real terms based on the financial year the first payment of student grant issued

Students living away from home:

Year	Maximum student grant	Real term value (Financial Year 2015-16 prices)
2015-16	£1,875	£1,875
2007-08	£2,510	£2,939
1997-98	£1,685	£2,488
1988-89	£1,990	£4,204
1979-80	£1,245	£4,995

Sources: HM Treasury GDP deflators (October 2015)

Note: Converted to real terms based on the financial year the first payment of student grant issued

Question reference: S4W-28340

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 09 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 16 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers its sale of student loan debt in 2013-14 to be privatisation.

Following discussions initiated by the UK Government, the Scottish Government agreed to participate in the sale of ‘mortgage style' student loans in 2013, alongside the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Due to the increasing age of these loans it was becoming increasingly difficult to collect repayments, leading to reduced income and increased costs for the Student Loans Company related to the on-going administration of the loan book.

The sale of loans was conducted on the understanding that there would be no detrimental impact on those students who had taken out these loans.

The Scottish Government does not consider the sale of ‘mortgage style’ loans to be privatisation and has no plans to participate in any future sale of student loan debt.

Question reference: S4W-28272

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 November 2015
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 13 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the total cost of funding the road equivalent tariff has been since 2008, also broken down by each ferry network subsidy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-25144 on 22 April 2015. 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.

I confirm that the final road equivalent tariff (RET) figure for financial year 2014-15 was £5,034 million.

In the financial year 2015-16, the estimated cost of RET is £7,938 million.

Question reference: S4T-01155

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 09 November 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the awarding of the Saltire Prize for marine renewables.

Question reference: S4W-28193

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 6 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with residents of East Dunbartonshire about setting up a new free school outside local authority control.

Question reference: S4W-28192

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 6 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the setting up of free schools outside local authority control.

Schools in Scotland are operated by local councils to make them accountable to the communities they serve.

Whilst we continue to be interested in discussing new ideas for improving our education system, we are clear that our approach to raising standards must be based on robust evidence of what works. We have seen little evidence to suggest that the free school model adopted by the UK Government should be replicated in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-28194

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 6 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much financial support it has provided to free schools outside local authority control.

Question reference: S4W-27779

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 2 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on what action has been taken to reduce the cost of parcel delivery to Scottish islands through delivery consolidation in the final miles.

The Scottish Government is working closely with stakeholders to ensure that customers receive a better service for parcel deliveries, and in particular to consider what can be done to assist rural, remote and island communities to reduce the cost of parcel deliveries. One of the issues that will be looked at is whether there are opportunities to encourage final mile consolidation by delivery operators.

Question reference: S4W-27780

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 2 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it is giving to remote and island communities to reduce the cost of parcel deliveries.

Question reference: S4W-27794

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 2 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the take-up of domestic Renewable Heat Incentive installations up to July 2015 in each island local authority.

Uptake of domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) installations by local authority area is published monthly by UK Department of Energy and Climate Change. The most recent figures can be accessed from the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/renewable-heat-incentive-statistics

The Scottish Government commends all local authorities, local communities and social housing providers that have made efforts to promote or provide energy efficient homes and low carbon affordable heat supplies to local residents. The Scottish Government encourages local authorities to take a strategic approach to supporting affordable low carbon heat in their area through their local development plan, local housing strategy and any carbon, energy or heat strategy they have.

Through its grant funding of the Energy Saving Trust (EST), the Scottish Government has supported uptake of the domestic RHI in Scotland, through work on sustainable energy supply chain and specialist renewable energy advisors, both of which are contributing factors to the better than pro-rata uptake of the RHI. To date Scotland has done well from the RHI both for domestic and non-domestic installations, accounting for around 19% of accredited installations of both of these UK schemes.

More detail of the uptake of renewable heat in Scotland for 2014 was recently published by EST. The report shows that there has been a step change in renewable heat output in 2014 and can be found at the following link:

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/renewable-heat-report-2014

In addition, if you are not already aware, please find attached a link to a recent Scottish Government press release on the above noted 2014 data:

http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Record-increase-for-renewable-heat-1e22.aspx

The Scottish Government would advise owner occupiers considering installing a renewable technology to contact the Scottish Government’s Home Energy Scotland advice centre (HESac) which is managed on our behalf by EST. Home Energy Scotland provides free and impartial advice on energy saving; renewable energy; sustainable transport; waste prevention; and more, to all householders in Scotland including advice on what schemes they may be eligible for. The HESac can be contacted on 0808 808 2282 and further information can be found at the following link:

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/improving-my-home