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We have been working with the Scottish Funding Council and the Students Award Agency for Scotland to determine how best to allocate this funding. The number of higher education places being funded by the Scottish Funding Council in both the college and university sectors has been decided for the academic year 2010-11. While the admissions process for academic year 2010-11 is not yet complete, it is clear that there is a strong demand for higher education courses. We wish to ensure that there is adequate support for the students who take up the offer of a place, while meeting the commitment we gave to provide student support for an additional 7,500 students in academic year 2009-10, many of whom will continue their studies in academic year 2010-11.

As a result, the £20 million announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth will be transferred to the Students Award Agency for Scotland as part of the Autumn Budget Revision process, to help meet this demand in academic year 2010-11.

We have funded a total of 129,733.1 full-time equivalent under-graduate and post-graduate university places for 2010-11.

The number of pre-registration student nurse and midwifery intake training places for 2010-11 is detailed below:

2010-11	Dundee University	Glasgow Caledonian University	Napier University	Robert Gordon University	Stirling University	University of the West of Scotland
Adult	332	349	420	208	268	609
Child	32	60	75	36	-	-
Learning Disability	-	30	30	-	-	-
Mental Health	57	61	61	30	73	122
Midwifery	20	21	36	24	26	57
Total 2010-11	441	521	622	298	367	788

 

An additional 23 pre-registration student nurse (adult nursing) intake places have been allocated to the Open University.

Young people aged 16 to 19 and not in employment, education or training (NEET), are known as the More Choices and More Chances (MCMC) group. In line with this definition, data is presented for people aged 16 to 19 and not people aged 16 to 18 as requested.

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is the official source for data on people not in education, employment or training. Table 1 shows the latest estimates from the APS, covering each year since 2007, of the numbers of people aged 16 to 19 not in education, employment or training in Scotland. It has not been possible to break these estimates down by local authority area because the sample sizes are too small to provide reliable estimates.

Table 1: Proportion and level of 16-to-19 year olds NEET, Scotland, 2007-2009

Year	Proportion	Level
2007	12.2%	32,000
2008	11.8%	31,000
2009	13.8%	36,000

Source: Annual Population Survey, Jan-Dec.

Note:

1. Estimates are rounded to nearest thousand.

The Scottish Government has not routinely collected detailed statistics on the provision of PE in schools either before or since the one-off compilation of statistics in 2005.

The information requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government has a target of 62 days from referral to treatment for those patients who have symptoms related to a cancer. This necessitates quick access to a cancer specialist, diagnostic tests and results in order to meet the target.

This year we are providing almost £600 million in resource funding for colleges, a record level of support and evidence of this administration''s continued commitment to our further education sector.

In his strategic letter of guidance to the Scottish Funding Council earlier this year, The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning made clear his wish to see colleges give priority to give to 16 to 24-year-olds, including those who need more choices and chances. Our ambitions for all young people are reflected in our key learning strategies, including Skills for Scotland, 16+ Learning Choices, and Curriculum for Excellence.

Addressing the needs of the More Choices, More Chances (MCMC) group is therefore a mainstream activity for all colleges and we expect an element of the substantial resource we make available to be deployed to that end.

We recognise, however, that MCMC is a challenging agenda. It was against this background that the Scottish Funding Council allocated some specific and additional funding for strategic improvements in targeted colleges that might inform improvement across the sector. This funding was allocated as follows overleaf.

Table 1: Additional MCMC Allocated Funding 2007-08 to 2009-10

College	2007-08 (£000)	2008-09 (£000)	2009-10 (£000)
Anniesland	192,884	192,884	192,884
Cardonald	275,805	275,805	275,805
Central	119,765	119,765	119,765
Clydebank	217,907	217,907	217,907
Glasgow Met	198,717	198,717	198,717
John Wheatley	107,979	107,979	107,979
North Glasgow	154,780	154,780	154,780
Langside	171,192	171,192	171,192
Stow	69,909	69,909	69,909
Glasgow Nautical	76,191	76,191	76,191
James Watt	570,318	570,318	570,318
Kilmarnock	230,867	230,867	230,867
Dundee	400,092	400,092	400,092
Ayr	101,093	101,093	101,093
Forth Valley	112,500	112,500	112,500

 

Colleges are required to live within their means, however we do endeavour to help meet additional demands by redistributing surpluses where possible. In 2009-10 we redistributed £686,728.40 of higher education discretionary funds and £11,943,839 of further education discretionary funds in response to requests from colleges. These funds can be used to help students in financial difficulties as well as provide childcare support.

Regulations governing approval of tenancy deposit schemes in Scotland will be introduced by means of a Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI). The regulations will be subject to affirmative procedure and Parliament will require to give its approval before it can come into effect.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-34354 on 18 June 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.