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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-21338

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 6 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many offences of drunk driving per 10,000 head of population there were in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area, and when it expects new statistics to be available.

Figures for drink driving convictions alone are not available. The following table provides information on drink or drug driving convictions from 2002-3 to 2006-07. Data relating to 2007-08 will be available in April 2009, following the publication of Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts 2007-08 statistical bulletin.

Persons with a Charge Proved for Drink/Drug Driving Related Offences^1,4per 10,000 Head of Population² 2002-03 to 2006-07: Breakdown by Approximate Local Authority Area³

Local Authority	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
Aberdeen City	26	27	26	25	21
Aberdeenshire	11	10	10	10	10
Angus	15	19	17	17	20
Argyll and Bute	14	15	16	17	13
Clackmannanshire	13	16	12	9	17
Dumfries and Galloway	15	17	17	17	19
Dundee City	21	23	19	18	19
East Ayrshire	25	25	26	26	25
East Lothian	13	14	16	12	12
Edinburgh, City of	21	16	16	16	15
Eilean Siar	23	26	28	34	30
Falkirk	29	16	17	12	14
Fife	23	16	14	15	16
Glasgow City	21	19	19	21	23
Highland	27	28	25	25	24
Inverclyde	16	14	12	10	10
Moray	21	21	22	18	15
North Lanarkshire	9	7	8	7	7
Orkney Islands	17	21	21	14	22
Perth and Kinross	24	19	17	17	17
Renfrewshire	23	15	16	17	19
Scottish Borders	14	17	15	16	13
Shetland Islands	22	28	29	20	25
South Ayrshire	23	20	22	19	20
South Lanarkshire	21	16	17	18	17
Stirling	31	19	16	16	17
West Dunbartonshire	32	24	25	24	25
West Lothian	27	17	14	16	15
Scotland	19	16	16	16	16

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Population figures based on General Register Office for Scotland mid-year estimates for the relevant year.

3. Incorporates an approximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courts will deal with cases from more than one local authority area. Four local authority areas, namely East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Midlothian and North Ayrshire, do not contain a sheriff court.

4. Offences included are: Driving a motor vehicle while unfit through drink or drugs; in charge of motor vehicle while unfit through drink or drugs; driving motor vehicle with blood alcohol content above prescribed limit; in charge of motor vehicle while blood alcohol content above limit; failure to provide breath specimen at the roadside; failure to provide breath, blood or urine specimen at police station.

Question reference: S3O-05984

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 26 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how the new Town Centre Regeneration Fund will benefit the people of Fife.

Question reference: S3W-20473

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 26 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what is considered a full-time course (a) by the Scottish Funding Council and (b) for the purposes of council tax collection.

The Scottish Funding Council classify a full time course as courses with at least 720 planned hours within one academic year for further education (non-advanced) and at least 480 planned hours within one academic year for higher education (advanced) courses.

With regards to council tax collection, an individual is generally classed as a full time student and therefore exempt from paying council tax if they are undertaking a course of study for at least 24 weeks of each academic year and requiring at least 21 hours of study, tuition or work experience in each of these weeks.

Question reference: S3W-20002

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive on what basis the £13 million of accelerated capital spend for further and higher education in 2009-10 will be distributed and which capital projects will benefit.

The £13 million of accelerated capital spend for further and higher education will be used to benefit projects across Scotland in 2009-10, helping to accelerate investment which would not otherwise have taken place until 2010-11. Further details of the specific projects which will benefit will be made available once the Scottish Funding Council has determined the basis on which the funding will be distributed in 2009-10, in collaboration with the institutions which it funds.

Question reference: S3W-20542

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many further education students it estimates to have dependent children.

Question reference: S3W-20471

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of students entering higher education represents those from (a) low-participation neighbourhoods, (b) non-traditional backgrounds and (c) low socio-economic classification groups for each of the last five years and when updated statistics will be published.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency annually publishes higher education performance indicators for all higher education institutions in the UK, including participation rates of students from low participation neighbourhoods and from low socio-economic classification groups. The most recently published performance indicators relate to the academic year 2006-07.

HESA''s participation of under-represented groups performance indicators can be found at:

http://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php/content/view/1174/141/.

There is no clearly defined measure of students from non-traditional backgrounds, though these are usually assumed to mean students from low socio-economic groups.

Question reference: S3W-20472

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time higher education students it estimates have dependent children.

Question reference: S3W-20475

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in receipt of an Education Maintenance Allowance of (a) £10 and (b) £20 received the £150 bonus payment in each of the last three years.

The following table presents the number of school pupils and further education college students who were supported in the £10 and £20 categories of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) scheme and who received bonus payments in academic years 2005-06 to 2007-08.

Level of Payment	Academic Year
	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
	Number of Students
£10	3,065	2,945	2,920
£20	2,975	3,200	3,385
Total (£10 and £20)	6,040	6,145	6,310

Notes:

1. Student numbers have been rounded up or down to the nearest five.

2. Numbers may not sum to totals due to rounding.

3. Direct comparisons between the figures 2007-08 and those for previous academic years cannot be made due to an improvement to the method of collating college data. This removed 75 duplicate cases from the total number of bonus recipients in the £10 and £20 categories in 2007-08.

Question reference: S3W-20448

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total amount was of interest accrued by Scotland domiciled and resident students in student loan debt in each of the last five years, broken down by interest accrued (a) while studying and (b) following graduation.

The following table shows the total amount of interest accrued by Scottish domiciled and resident students in student loan debt in each of the last five financial years broken down by interest accrued (a) while studying and (b) following graduation or withdrawal.

Financial Year	Interest added Following Graduation or Withdrawal (£ Million)	Interest Added whilst Studying (£ Millions)	Total Interest Added (£ Millions)
2003-04	9.70	14.01	23.70
2004-05	13.34	15.87	29.21
2005-06	20.39	15.98	36.37
2006-07	27.95	13.55	41.50
2007-08	25.51	17.73	43.24
Total	96.88	77.14	174.03

Source: Student Loans Company (SLC).

Notes:

Monetary amounts have been rounded to the nearest 10,000 and are quoted in millions.

Scotland domiciled and resident is taken as those who took out loans which are owed back to Scotland.

Interest accrued (a) while studying and (b) following graduation is interpreted as (a) before the Statutory Repayment Due Date (SRDD) and (b) after the SRDD.

The SLC does not apply interest to the accounts of income contingent loan borrowers who have entered repayment until they have received notice of the amounts of repayments collected from Her Majesty''s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). For most cases this occurs within one year of the tax year that the repayments relate to, interest is then applied retrospectively to the accounts.

Question reference: S3W-20431

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people received an education maintenance allowance of (a) £10 and (b) £20 in each of the last three years.

The following table presents the number of school pupils and further education college students who received education maintenance allowance (EMA) support in the £10 and £20 categories in academic years 2005-06 to 2007-08.

Level of Payment	Academic Year
	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
	Number of Students
£10	3,760	3,560	3,430
£20	3,600	3,925	3,965
Total	7,360	7,485	7,395

Notes:

1. Student numbers have been rounded up or down to the nearest five.

2. Numbers may not sum to totals as a result of this rounding.

3. Direct comparisons between the figures 2007-08 and those for previous academic years cannot be made due to an improvement to the method of collating college data. This removed 175 duplicate cases from the total number of students supported in the £10 and £20 categories in 2007-08.