Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-19000

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider providing funds to deliver the Leven to Thornton rail link project.

As I announced on 10 December 2008, the delivery of the Forth Crossing is the strategic transport priority for Scotland which will dominate our investment programme until its opening in 2016. Alongside this, we will deliver rail interventions such as the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvements Programme, improvements to the Highland Main Line and improvements between Aberdeen and Inverness.

The Levenmouth Feasibility Study was appraised during the Strategic Transport Project Review process, but was not determined as a priority for implementation as the benefits are focused at a local and regional level.

We will continue to monitor the work of SESTrans on this project.

Question reference: S3W-18994

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the institutions that failed to spend their (a) Higher Education Childcare Fund, (b) undergraduate Discretionary Fund, (c) postgraduate Discretionary Fund and (d) any other discretionary funding, in each of the last three years.

Any unspent funds from the Higher Education Discretionary Funds are returned by institutions to SAAS. These funds are then redistributed on the basis of applications from institutions with pressure on their current discretionary funds.

Therefore, there were no unspent funds in 2006-07 after the redistribution process completed. The redistribution of underspend from 2007-08 will take place in January 2009. The redistribution process for underspend from academic year 2008-09 will take place in January 2010.

Question reference: S3W-19004

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it considers should next be taken to secure the dualing of the A92 around Glenrothes.

Question reference: S3W-19199

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding sources are provided for higher education students at college and how this funding is distributed.

Question reference: S3W-19188

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what government financial support is available to independent students.

Full details of the government financial support available to independent students studying higher education courses at university or college can be found on the Student Awards Agency for Scotland''s website www.saas.gov.uk. Independent students wishing to attend further education courses can receive full advice on what they are entitled to from their college.

Further details on what funding sources are provided for lone parents can be found at the following link www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/Funding-Support-Grants/FFL/Publications.

Question reference: S3W-19198

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding sources are provided for further education students at college and how this funding is distributed.

Full details of what funding sources are provided for further education students at college can be found at the following link:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/Funding-Support-Grants/FFL/Publications.

Further education (FE) bursary funds are allocated by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), as part of their main recurrent allocation to colleges. Support for students on further education courses in college is distributed by the institution they attend. The SFC work with representatives from the college sector each year to set national guidelines for FE bursaries. The 2008-09 bursary policy can be found on the SFC website at the following link:

www.sfc.ac.uk/information/info_circulars/sfc/2008/sfc1408/guidance_bursary.pdf.

Question reference: S3W-19197

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding sources are provided for lone parents studying higher education courses at university or college and studying further education courses.

Full details of the support available to lone parents studying higher education courses at university or college can be found on the Student Awards Agency for Scotland''s website www.saas.gov.uk. Lone parents wishing to attend further education courses can receive full advice on what they are entitled to from their college.

Further details on what funding sources are provided for lone parents can be found at the following link www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/82254/0064841.pdf.

Question reference: S3W-18902

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 5 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new applications have been received for a free central heating system in the KY postcode area in each month since, and including, July 2008 for which information is available and how many have been considered eligible.

Information provided by the managing agent, for the KY postcode area, on the number of applications and the number accepted, subject to survey, in each month during the period requested is shown in the following table:

Month of Application	Number of Applications	Accepted Subject to Survey
July 2008	60	23
August 2008	51	22
September 2008	72	29
October 2008	95	10
November 2008	182	135
Total	460	219

Note: 1. An initial assessment is made at the application stage (normally by telephone) and those applications are recorded as accepted, subject to survey.

Question reference: S3W-18903

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 5 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been on the waiting list for a free central heating system in the KY postcode area in each month since, and including, July 2008 for which information is available.

Information provided by the managing agent, for the KY postcode area, on the number of applicants on the waiting list in each month during the period requested, is shown in the following table:

Month of Application	Number of Applicants on Waiting List
July 2008	306
August 2008	282
September 2008	193
October 2008	175
November 2008	226

Question reference: S3W-18578

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 22 December 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people (a) applied for and (b) received a Lone Parent’s Grant in each of the last three years.

Information on the number of students who applied for Lone Parent''s Grant and Lone Parent''s Childcare Grant is not held centrally.

The following table shows the number of higher education students who received Lone Parent''s Grant and the number receiving Lone Parent''s Childcare Grant from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) in academic years 2005-06 to 2007-08. These figures are published, for academic years 2002-03 to 2007-08, in Higher Education Student Support in Scotland 2007-08:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/11/21111027/0.

Academic Year	Number of Students Receiving Lone Parent''s Grant	Number of Students Receiving Lone Parent''s Childcare Grant
2005-06	3,230	1,450
2006-07	3,025	1,415
2007-08	2,920	1,375

Notes:

Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS).

Student numbers have been rounded up or down to the nearest five (e.g. one, two round down to zero, three, four round up to five).

Lone Parent''s Grant is available on an income assessed basis to students who are single, widowed, divorced or no longer living with a partner and are bringing up children. An additional grant, Lone Parent''s Childcare Grant, is available to recipients of Lone Parent''s Grant who have to pay for registered or formal child care.

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