Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-29704

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29452 by Richard Lochhead on 3 February 2016, on what date it will write to UK ministers regarding implementing a deposit return system for beverage containers and whether it will publish this correspondence.

Question reference: S4W-29700

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29439 by Richard Lochhead on 3 February 2016, on what date the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment wrote to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs about implementing a deposit return system for beverage containers and whether it will publish the letter.

Question reference: S4W-29705

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to propose a particular model or system for a deposit return scheme in light of the responses that Zero Waste Scotland received to its call for additional evidence for a deposit return scheme for Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-29699

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29452 by Richard Lochhead on 3 February 2016, whether the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive are supportive of the implementation of a deposit return system for beverage containers.

Question reference: S4W-29701

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29439 by Richard Lochhead on 3 February 2016, whether it will publish the response from the Secretary of State for Environment, Food Rural Affairs regarding implementing a deposit return system for beverage containers.

Question reference: S4W-29874

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many extra staff it has recruited to deal with the backlog of applications under the Basic Payment Scheme and other common agricultural policy measures and how these have been allocated by area office.

Rural Payments and Inspections Division have recruited 36 additional staff in order to help speed up processing and payments. The location of each of these staff members is shown on the following table:

Office	Staff Recruited
Ayr	2
Hamilton	0
Dumfries	3
Galashiels	4
Inverness (including Portree)	9
Inverurie	4
Elgin	2
Kirkwall	2
Lerwick	1
Golspie	1
Thurso	1
Oban	2
Stornoway	2
Benbecula	1
Tiree	0
Perth	2
Total	36

Question reference: S4W-29703

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29439 by Richard Lochhead on 3 February 2016, whether the UK Government is supportive of the implementation of a deposit return system for beverage containers.

Question reference: S4T-01334

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 29 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reports that 67% of colleges had committed all of or more than their bursary budget by December 2015.

Question reference: S4W-29824

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29472 by Angela Constance on 5 February 2016, what resource accounting and budgeting charge is expected to apply in 2016-17, expressed as a percentage of initial loan outlay.

Question reference: S4W-29823

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 08 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-29470 by Angela Constance on 5 February 2016, what the resource accounting and budgeting charge is for a repayment threshold of £21,000, also expressed as a percentage of initial loan outlay.

The resource and accounting budget (RAB charge), estimated each year, forecasts repayments of student loans for all existing borrowers, as well as future borrowers. The model draws on demographics to calculate a repayment profile and a write off element, which combined provide the RAB charge. The repayment profile calculates the time and rate of repayment, whereas the write off estimates the amount that will never be recovered. The current RAB charge represents a percentage of every £1 lent.

The current estimated RAB charge for Scotland is 29%, meaning that for every £1 lent through the student loan scheme, the Scottish Government can expect to recoup 71 pence. The Scottish Government modelled the impact of increasing the student loan repayment threshold to £21,000 based on 2014-15 data, which produced an estimated RAB charge of 33%.

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