- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will confirm that HM Treasury will fund an increase in student loan new lend through annual managed expenditure if the Scottish Executive decides to increase student loan amounts.
Answer
We have not held any discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer or other ministers as this is not Scottish Government policy.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has changed its estimated costs of the “unwinding of discount on debt sale subsidy provision”, “cost of student loans”, “unwinding of discount on write-off provision” and “student loans interest subsidy to banks” budget lines in light of changes to the Bank of England interest rate and rate of inflation and whether any savings are anticipated for Scottish Government budgets.
Answer
The budgets for the unwinding of discount on debt sale subsidy provision and the unwinding of discount on write-off provision will be increased in accordance with the revised estimated costs at the 2009 Spring Budget revision reflecting changes in the Retail Price Index. The changes to the Bank of England interest rate and rate of inflation have no effect on the cost of student loans in the short term. The student loans interest subsidy to the banks budget is held outwith the Scottish Government''s Total Managed Expenditure and does not give rise to additional costs or savings.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many independent full-time higher education students there are, broken down by age and income.
Answer
The number of full-time higher education students classed as independent in the academic year 2007-08 was 22,560. An analysis by age and parental or spousal income, where this was declared to SAAS, is shown in the following table.
Independent-Full Time Students Supported by SAAS 2007-08 by Age and Residual Income
| Income group | Age Group |
| 20 and Under | 21-24 | 25 and Over | All Ages |
| Income not declared/required | 25 | 35 | 325 | 385 |
| < £10,000 | 25 | 100 | 740 | 865 |
| £10,000 - £19,999 | 25 | 90 | 895 | 1010 |
| £20,000 - £29,999 | 10 | 30 | 755 | 800 |
| £30,000 - £39,999 | 5 | 5 | 385 | 400 |
| £40,000 - £49,999 | 5 | 0 | 130 | 135 |
| £50,000 or more | 10 | 0 | 95 | 105 |
| Exempt from Parental/Spousal Contribution | 1,120 | 4,170 | 13,575 | 18,865 |
| Total | 1,225 | 4,430 | 16,905 | 22,560 |
Notes:
The income given is residual income, i.e. after the deductions allowed by SAAS.
Numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how decreased interest rates will affect the Scottish Government’s income and expenditure in subsidising student loan interest.
Answer
Changes to the interest rate and rate of inflation will have no effect on the cost of student loans for this spending review period.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, in the event that the inflation rate is higher than interest rates, what the rate will be of student loan interest.
Answer
Regulation 14 of the Education (Student Loans) (Scotland) Regulations 2007 effectively provides that that the interest rate applied to Income Contingent Loans is to be the lower of:
(i) a rate equal to the annual percentage increase in the retail price index (RPI)
(the RPI rate), or
(ii) the highest of the base rates used by a pool of banks (including the Bank of
England) plus 1% (the Base Rate).
The recent reduction in the base rates of all of the banks in the pool to 2% has resulted in the RPI rate of 3.8% (for the year from 1 September 2008 to 31 August 2009) exceeding the Base Rate of 3% (2%+1%). This means that the interest rate applied to Income Contingent Loans has reduced from 3.8% to 3% as of 5 December 2008.
Mortgage style loans are governed by different regulations than ICR Loans. These regulations which are made under the Education Student Loans Act 1990 do not require or allow the interest rate applied to mortgage style loans to change in line with any reductions in the Base Rate, so the RPI rate (3.8%) will still apply for the rest of the financial year.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it makes budgetary assumptions about an annual increase in the level of graduate debt repayment in setting policy on graduate debt and, if so, what it assumes the annual increase to be.
Answer
Graduate debt repayment is reviewed annually taking into account actual repayment information received from Her Majesty''s Revenue and Customs and the Student Loans Company. It is currently assumed that debt repayment will increase by £10 million per annum from 2008-09 but this will be subject to on-going review.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive on what basis the £7.5 million of accelerated capital spend for further and higher education will be distributed and which capital projects will benefit.
Answer
The basis on which the £7.5 million of accelerated capital spend for further and higher education will be distributed and the detail of which capital projects will benefit are operational matters for the Scottish Funding Council. I have asked the Scottish Funding Council to write to the member with this information.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it considers should next be taken to secure the dualing of the A92 around Glenrothes.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-19005 on 8 January 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the institutions that failed to spend their (a) Higher Education Childcare Fund, (b) undergraduate Discretionary Fund, (c) postgraduate Discretionary Fund and (d) any other discretionary funding, in each of the last three years.
Answer
Any unspent funds from the Higher Education Discretionary Funds are returned by institutions to SAAS. These funds are then redistributed on the basis of applications from institutions with pressure on their current discretionary funds.
Therefore, there were no unspent funds in 2006-07 after the redistribution process completed. The redistribution of underspend from 2007-08 will take place in January 2009. The redistribution process for underspend from academic year 2008-09 will take place in January 2010.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 January 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive for what reasons the Leven to Thornton rail link project was not in the Scottish Transport Projects Review.
Answer
The Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) has recommended 29 transport interventions over the next 20 years that will let us plan for the delivery of an efficient, integrated transport network fit for the 21st century.
The Leven to Thornton rail link project was considered as part of the STPR. However, it was not included in the final package of recommended interventions as it was found that it would only provide benefits at a local and regional level.
