Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-21498

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received requests for additional discretionary funds in the last 14 months from colleges, universities or the Scottish Funding Council and, if so, from whom and for how much.

The requests for additional Discretionary Funds in academic years 2007-08 and 2008-09 are shown in the following tables:

In-Year Re-Distribution 2007-08

Institution	Additional Amount Requested (£)
Adam Smith College	50,000.00
Cumbernauld College	20,000.00
Cardonald College	20,000.00
Napier University	40,000.00
Motherwell College	70,000.00
GCNS	5,000.00
James Watt College	90,000.00
University of Abertay Dundee	21,000.00
Stevenson college	43,207.00
Ayr College	10,000.00
Borders College	10,000.00
Central College of Commerce	100,000.00
Oatridge College	12,000.00
Angus College	40,000.00
Glasgow School of Art	10,000.00
Scottish Agricultural College	10,000.00
Forth Valley College	156,875.00
South Lanarkshire College	240,000.00
Coatbridge College	15,000.00
John Wheatley College	6,000.00
UHI	40,000.00
Dundee College	70,000.00
North Glasgow College	30,000.00

In-Year Re-Distribution 2008-09

Institution	Additional Amount Requested (£)
Ayr College	20,000
Barony College	3,000
Borders College	7,250
Cardonald College	30,500
Central College	89,000
Clydebank College	40,000
Cumbernauld College	23,000
Dumfries and Galloway College	8,000
Adam Smith College	35,000
James Watt College	120,630
Motherwell College	27,869
North Glasgow College	60,000
Oatridge College	15,000
Reid Kerr College	30,000
South Lanarkshire College	10,240
Stevenson College	34,748
Stow College	123,000
West Lothian College	26,000
University of Abertay Dundee	48,000
Glasgow Scholl of Art	15,000
St Andrews University	15,000
Stirling University	25,000
UHI	40,000
Glasgow Metropolitan College	23,398
Anniesland College	10,000
Elmwood College	2,865
Total	882,500

Question reference: S3W-21367

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) male and (b) female mortality rate was where alcohol was a contributory factor in each of the last five years, broken down by community health partnership area, and when it expects new statistics to be available.

Question reference: S3W-21339

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many publicly funded schools offered (a) higher and (b) advanced higher courses in each of the last four years, broken down by local authority.

The available information is given in the following table.

	Schools Presenting at Higher				Schools Presenting at Advanced Higher
	2005	2006	2007	2008	2005	2006	2007	2008
Aberdeen City	12	12	12	12	11	11	11	11
Aberdeenshire	16	17	17	17	16	16	17	17
Angus	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
Argyll and Bute	10	10	10	10	9	9	10	10
Clackmannanshire	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Dumfries and Galloway	15	15	15	15	14	14	15	15
Dundee City	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
East Ayrshire	9	9	9	9	9	8	9	8
East Dunbartonshire	9	9	8	8	9	9	8	8
East Lothian	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
East Renfrewshire	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7
Edinburgh City of	23	23	23	23	23	22	21	22
Eilean Siar	4	4	4	4	3	4	4	4
Falkirk	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
Fife	19	19	19	19	19	19	19	19
Glasgow City	29	29	29	29	28	25	28	27
Highland	29	29	29	29	27	28	27	26
Inverclyde	8	8	8	7	8	8	8	7
Midlothian	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
Moray	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
North Ayrshire	10	10	10	9	10	10	10	9
North Lanarkshire	26	26	25	25	25	25	24	25
Orkney Islands	4	2	3	2	2	2	2	2
Perth and Kinross	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9
Renfrewshire	12	12	11	11	12	12	11	11
Scottish Borders	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9
Shetland Islands	3	5	4	4	2	2	2	2
South Ayrshire	9	9	8	8	8	9	8	8
South Lanarkshire	21	19	19	17	21	19	19	17
Stirling	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7
West Dunbartonshire	7	7	6	6	6	7	6	6
West Lothian	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11

Question reference: S3W-21365

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the discharge rate from general hospitals was for alcohol-related conditions in each year from 2003-04 to 2007-08, broken down by community health partnership, and when it expects new statistics to be published.

Question reference: S3W-21499

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much discretionary funding has been provided to higher education and further education institutions in the 2008-09 academic year, broken down by type and institution.

The full list of allocations for the Higher Education Discretionary Funds, provided to colleges and universities, is available on the Student Award Agency for Scotland (SAAS) website at http://www.saas.gov.uk/student_support/other_funding.htm#discretionary.

In addition to this, information on which institutions have received further funds as part of the in-year re-distribution process can be found in the answer to question S3W-21493 on 6 March 2009. 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.

Information on discretionary fund allocations to colleges for further education students is not held by the Scottish Government and can be obtained from the Scottish Funding Council.

Question reference: S3W-21366

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) male and (b) female mortality rate was where alcohol was the underlying cause in each of the last five years, broken down by community health partnership area, and when it expects new statistics to be available.

Question reference: S3W-21493

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of any reallocations of discretionary funds that it has made for colleges or universities in 2008-09.

The in-year re-allocation of Higher Education Discretionary Funds for 2008-09 was as follows:

Institution	Additional Amount Allocated
Ayr College	20,000
Barony College	3,000
Borders College	7,250
Cardonald College	23,272.99
Central College	23,272.99
Clydebank College	23,272.99
Cumbernauld College	23,000
Dumfries and Galloway College	8,000
Adam Smith College	23,272.99
James Watt College	23,272.99
Motherwell College	23,272.99
North Glasgow College	23,272.99
Oatridge College	15,000
Reid Kerr College	23,272.99
South Lanarkshire College	10,240
Stevenson College	23,272.99
Stow College	23,272.99
West Lothian College	23,272.99
University of Abertay Dundee	23,272.99
Glasgow Scholl of Art	15,000
St Andrews University	15,000
Stirling University	23,272.99
UHI	23,272.99
Glasgow Metropolitan College	23,272.99
Anniesland College	10,000
Elmwood College	2,865
Total	478,449.85

Question reference: S3W-21491

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any discretionary funds have been exhausted at universities or colleges in the last two academic years and, if so, which funds and which institutions.

Higher Education Discretionary Fund allocations for each year are intended to provide institutions with a source of additional funding which they can then use to assist students in financial difficulty and who are at risk of not completing their course. The funds are intended to be spent within the year in which they are allocated, thus providing the maximum sum available to students in each individual year. Any unspent funds are returned for redistribution in the following academic year and are thus put straight back into the discretionary funds system.

The vast majority of funds should therefore be exhausted in the academic year for which they are allocated.

Academic Year 2006-07

A total of five institutions exhausted both their Higher Education Discretionary and Childcare Funds. These were:

Ayr College

Barony College

Glasgow Metropolitan College

North Glasgow College

Reid Kerr College.

A further five institutions exhausted only their Discretionary Fund allocation:

Banff and Buchan College

John Wheatley College

Newbattle Abbey College

Edinburgh College of Art

St Andrews University

A further three institutions exhausted only their Childcare Fund:

Borders College

Queen Margaret University College

RSAMD.

Academic Year 2007-08

A total of three institutions exhausted both their Higher Education Discretionary and Childcare Funds:

Barony College

Dundee College

Reid Kerr College.

A further three institutions exhausted only their Discretionary Fund allocation:

Edinburgh''s Telford College

John Wheatley College

Newbattle Abbey College.

A further eight institutions exhausted only their Childcare Fund:

Borders College

Glasgow Metropolitan College

Oatridge Agricultural College

Stow College

Glasgow School of Art

Heriot Watt University

RSAMD

Strathclyde University.

Question reference: S3W-21492

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive when it plans to make a reallocation of discretionary funds among (a) universities and (b) colleges and which types of discretionary funds will be reallocated.

An in-year reallocation of Higher Education Discretionary Funds takes place in late January or early February each year. This year the reallocation process was completed by 13 February 2009. This re-allocation of funds is for higher education students in both colleges and universities. The Higher Education Discretionary Funds consist of:

The Undergraduate Discretionary Fund

The Postgraduate Discretionary Fund

The Part-time Discretionary Fund

The Childcare Discretionary Fund.

Question reference: S3W-21341

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 10 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average class size was for (a) maths and (b) English in S1 and S2 in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority.

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