- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has provided sufficient discretionary funding to prevent student hardship in 2008-09.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-21494 on 10 March 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.
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- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has provided sufficient childcare discretionary funding to meet demand among student parents at college and university in 2008-09.
Answer
The purpose of child care discretionary funds is not to meet every demand for the cost of child care from every student. They are intended to provide institutions with a source of additional funding which colleges and universities can then use to assist students with the costs of child care who are in financial difficulty and who are at risk of not completing their courses.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether discretionary funds will meet demand among students in 2008-09.
Answer
The purpose of discretionary funds is not to meet every financial demand from every student. They are intended to provide institutions with a source of additional funding which colleges and universities can then use to assist students in financial difficulty and who are at risk of not completing their courses.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 10 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average class size was for (a) maths and (b) English in S1 and S2 in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority.
Answer
This information is not generally collected centrally. It was collected in 2007 to measure progress against the previous administration''s target.
The information is published on the government website at the following link:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/19125551/6.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 10 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average class size was for each secondary school age group in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority.
Answer
This information is not collected centrally.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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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.
Answer
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 Offences1,4 per 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.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 February 2009
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2009
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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.
Answer
This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0226-01.htm
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 February 2009
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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.
Answer
The Annual Population Survey (APS) collects information on household composition and qualifications being studied by people in the household. The estimated number of full-time students studying for qualifications at the higher education level who have dependent children was 14,000 for the year July 2007 to June 2008.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 24 February 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-20037 by Fiona Hyslop on 29 January 2009, how much would be saved by abolishing the £150 bonus payment for people in receipt of an Educational Maintenance Allowance of (a) £10 and (b) £20.
Answer
Assuming that the amounts paid out in bonus payments to those in the £10 and £20 categories in future years would be the same as in 2007-08, we estimate that the resources released by removing the bonus payments for students supported in these categories would be £0.7 million and £0.8 million respectively.
