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Formulaic funding for social inclusion is provided by the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) via the three strands shown as follows:Entry Costs Social Inclusion Premium: This element reflects SFEFC's on-going commitment to support the development of further education as a means of giving new opportunities to people from socially deprived areas. The premium supports the extra costs colleges bear when engaging with socially excluded groups and provides an incentive for colleges to increase their provision for these groups. Colleges will receive a premium worth £57.95 in 2003-04 for students domiciled within the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland.Retention and Achievement Social Inclusion Premium: This element acknowledges the difficulty in meeting the on-going support needs of students from under-represented groups as they progress through their courses. Colleges will receive a premium for 2003-04 worth £9.94 per unit of funding generated by students domiciled within the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland.Remoteness Element: SFEFC has a duty, on behalf of the Scottish ministers, to ensure that there is adequate and efficient provision of FE in Scotland. It is recognised that there are additional costs, for what are often small colleges, associated with operating in remote and island areas of Scotland. The remoteness element aims to reflect the additional costs which these colleges necessarily bear. Each qualifying remote college receives an institutional element (£191,359 for 2003-04), and the sum of £30.70 per head based on the number of students whose home address is in a sparsely populated area.It is also recognised that colleges operating on islands or in extremely remote locations can face even higher financial burdens due to their location. Therefore, both the above institutional and student based elements are uplifted by a further 30% for island locations and 15% for extremely remote mainland locations.

The public consultation in relation to delivery of court services in the Peebles area will commence when discussions between the Scottish Court Service, Scottish Borders Council and Lothian and Borders Police on the relocation of the court to council buildings at Rosetta Road, Peebles have concluded.

No.

Section 28 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 requires each education authority to publish or otherwise make available their arrangements for the placing of children in schools under their management.In addition, each year the Scottish Executive publishes a guide for parents entitled Choosing a School, which includes within it information on the placing request system. This booklet is available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/education/casg-00.asp.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-176 today. 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/search_wa.

The Scottish Executive does not issue such policy guidelines. Education authorities are under a statutory duty (set out in section 1 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980) to ensure that they make adequate and efficient provision of school education for their area. Setting criteria for the allocation of places in schools under their management and for determining priority admissions are matters to be determined by education authorities in meeting their duties under this section. Authorities can only turn down a placing request on one of the grounds set out in law.

Education authority committees are not concerned with the determination of "civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge" and therefore ECHR, and in particular Article 6, is not applicable. We consider that the system for dealing with cases considered by the committees, which includes the availability of a further appeal to the sheriff court, is nonetheless compatible with the requirements of the convention.

The Scottish Executive has no plans to make legal aid available in respect of local authority education appeal committee proceedings. Legal aid is available for appeals from the committees to the sheriff court.

This is a matter for local education authorities. Subject to the terms of sections 28A and 28B of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, it is for the local education authority to set out and make available guidelines indicating how they will place children in schools under their management.

The Executive's objective for all of Scotland is sustainable improvement in economic performance. A Smart, Successful Scotland sets out strategic direction to the Enterprise Networks and focuses on three key challenges for raising productivity: growing businesses, global connections and learning and skills.In following this direction, Scottish Enterprise Borders takes account of local needs and opportunities. Provision of information on programmes and projects is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise. The Borders Local Economic Forum, of which Scottish Enterprise Borders is a member, provides a mechanism for co-ordinated delivery of local economic development activities.