Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-12694

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide calculations for the basis of the First Minister’s statements on 24 April 2008 that around 160,000 students are not liable for the council tax and that the vast majority of these students do not earn enough to pay the local income tax (Official Report, c. 7934).

As a point of clarification, the First Minister referred in Parliament on 24 April 2008 to around 160,000 students in Scotland not earning enough to pay local income tax. He did not say that 160,000 students are currently not liable for the council tax.

The total number of full time students in Scottish institutions in 2006-07 was 228,795. Initial estimates, using earnings related data for full-time students, indicated that perhaps around three quarters of these would not earn sufficient to bring them over the level of the personal allowance. The number who would be liable at the time of introduction of a local income tax would of course depend on the level of the personal allowance at that time.

Question reference: S3W-12693

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time students are in higher and further education and, of these, how many are not exempt from paying the council tax and what the reasons are for their not being exempt.

Question reference: S3W-12350

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether full-time students living in shared accommodation with other full-time students are liable to pay council tax.

Question reference: S3W-12351

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the First Minister’s statement on 17 April 2008 that higher education students pay council tax dependent on where they stay (Official Report c. 7686), what the relationship is between the location or type of accommodation of full-time higher education students and their liability to pay council tax

Question reference: S3W-12126

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings have taken place between ministers and student groups since May 2007, who attended and what was discussed.

Meetings regularly take place between Scottish ministers and student groups. The following table provides details of all meetings which have taken place between Scottish ministers and student groups since May 2007, including who attended and topics for discussion:

Minister	Meeting with	Topic	Date
Fiona Hyslop	HE, FE, student and union representatives	Roundtable Forum	6 June 2007
Fiona Hyslop	Presidents of Student Associations of each Scottish higher education institution, President of NUS and Convener of CHESS	Student Summit to discuss range of higher education issues	31 August 2007
Fiona Hyslop	HE, FE, student and union representatives	Roundtable Forum	23 October 2007
Fiona Hyslop	NUS Conference	Speech at the NUS conference	1 March 2008
Fiona Hyslop	President of NUS	Private meeting to discuss Joint Future Thinking Taskforce on Universities	6 March 2008
Fiona Hyslop	NUS and The joint Future Thinking Taskforce on Universities	NUS contribution to Taskforce	16 March 2008
Fiona Hyslop	Student representatives from around the country	Student Summit	28 April 2008
Jim Mather	UWS Student Union	Open Forum Q&A	25 February 2008
Nicola Sturgeon	Stow College Graduation Ceremony	Address and present awards	15 November 2007
Nicola Sturgeon	Meeting Dental Students Aberdeen	Attending Dental Institute	21 January 2008
Nicola Sturgeon	Addressing Glasgow Caledonian Students re. development of policy in health and social care	Address	4 April 2008
Shona Robison	Scottish Youth Parliament Health Committee	Public Health Issues	23 January 2008
Maureen Watt	National Union of Students Scotland Conference	Roles of students and how NUS can work with Government	21 November 2008
Elish Angiolini QC Lord Advocate	Law School students, University of Edinburgh	Criminal Law	6 November 2007

Question reference: S3W-12680

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding has been announced for Education and Lifelong Learning since the spending review.

The following additional funding has been made available during the 2007-08 financial year and will affect expenditure during the spending review period 2008-09 to 2010-11.

Free School Meal Pilots

In March 2008 the Government announced that it was committed to meeting the costs of extending the Free School Meal pilots from April 2008 to the end of June 2008 and made an additional £2 million available to the five authorities (Borders, Fife, Glasgow, East Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire) undertaking these Free School Meal pilots. This funding has been made available to ensure that the 5 authorities could continue the Free School Meal pilots to the end of the school term.

£10 Million Current Funding for HEIs

£10m of Current funding was made available to the higher education institutions (HEIs) to address cost pressures within the sector at the 2008 Spring Budget Revisions (SBR).

£20 Million Current Funding for FE and HEIs

An additional £20 million of current funding has been made available, split 50%50% between the two sectors before the 2007-08 year-end.

- £10 million for HEIs to address cost pressures within the sector in addition to that made available at the SBR, and

- £10 million for further education colleges to allow further strategic investment in key priority areas, such as supporting young people who need more choices and more chances; articulation, and innovative approaches to learning delivery.

Question reference: S3W-12679

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding will be provided for (a) Education and Lifelong Learning, (b) further education, (c) higher education and (d) student support in each of the next three years and how much was provided in each of the last three years.

Information relating to Education and Lifelong Learning funding can be found in the following documents:

The Scottish Budget Spending Review 2007 (Chapter 22), which covers allocations for 2007-08 and projected allocations from 2008-09 to 2010-11, at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/13092240/23.

The Scottish Executive Consolidated Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2007 (page 31, 32), at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/10/30102402/11 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/10/30102402/12.

The Scottish Executive Consolidated Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2006 (page 30, 31), at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/10/31084836/11, and http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/10/31084836/12.

The Scottish Government funds colleges and universities to deliver a range of levels of education and does not specify levels of provision of further or higher education. Therefore there are no specific figures for funding of further and higher education.

Colleges use their funding to deliver further education (including student support) and higher education and higher education institutions also deliver both teaching and research. It is for individual institutions to determine the balance of provision on the basis of demand and strategic direction.

Following spending review 2007, funding for schools has been transferred to revenue support grant (RSG) for allocation to local authorities.

Question reference: S3W-12691

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the £12 million per annum to alleviate student hardship referred, to by the First Minister on 24 April 2008 (Official Report, c. 7933), is (a) additional funding and (b) time-limited.

The £12 million to which the First Minister referred on 24 April are the Discretionary Funds. These monies are made available by Scottish ministers and are intended to provide non-repayable assistance for students in financial difficulties in order for them to access and/or continue in higher education. This is not an additional package of funding but has been in place for several years. This funding is not time-limited.

Question reference: S3W-12685

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many students will benefit from changes to the eligibility for the young students bursary from the 2008-09 academic year, including those under the age of 25 and with a child over three, and by how much in total.

It is only those students under the age of 25 and with a child over three who will benefit from changes to the eligibility for the Young Students'' Bursary from the 2008-09 academic year. I refer the member to the question S3W-10207 answered on 3 March 2008. 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/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S3W-12692

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 May 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide further details of the (a) £30 million available for 2010-11 to support students further and (b) consultation that is taking place, referred to by the First Minister on 24 April 2008 (Official Report, c. 7933).

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