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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-19178

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what it estimates that the level of graduate debt repayment will be for each of the next seven years.

Question reference: S3W-19181

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has to increase the levels of student loans.

Question reference: S3W-19192

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual spend on the Young Students’ Bursary has been since its inception.

Question reference: S3W-19003

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it considers should next be taken to secure delivery of the Leven to Thornton rail link.

Question reference: S3W-19196

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what legislative action will be required to implement each of the options in its Supporting a Smarter Scotland consultation paper.

Question reference: S3W-19194

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many students would benefit from increased student support under option 2 in its Supporting a Smarter Scotland consultation paper, broken down by income and amount provided in each income decile.

Option 2 of the consultation paper suggests an increase of the minimum income available. An investment of £30 million could for example provide for an increase to a level of £5,500 for those from the lowest incomes. The details of the policy, including the number of students and the amount of support provided in each income category, will be developed following consideration of the consultation responses.

Question reference: S3W-19186

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what effect changes to the interest rate and rate of inflation has on 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.

Unwinding of Provisions:

Student loan provisions are created and supplemented on a discounted cost basis, and each year the discount in the provision is unwound. This means that the balance of the provision is uprated by that part of the discounting which relates to the year of account because the provision has moved on a year.

The unwinding element is obtained by calculation with reference to the Retail Price Index (RPI) and the discount rate. For student loans accounting purposes, the RPI used is the RPI in September in the accounting year; and the discount rate is the rate that equates to the Treasury''s cost of capital for provisions.

This being the case, any changes in interest rates will not affect the unwinding calculations unless the Treasury change their cost of capital for provisions. Changes in the rate of inflation will only affect the unwinding calculation to the extent of the change in September in the year of account since that is the index which is utilised, in accordance with the Financial Reporting and Expenditure Manual. The amount of the change will also be dependent on the amount of residual provision available to be unwound. Based on existing rates, the unwinding of discount on the write-off and debt sale subsidy provisions will be £23.8 million and £4.6 million respectively. This is in excess of budget by approximately £11.8 million and £0.6 million respectively and this additional cost will be met from within the Education and Lifelong Learning portfolio budgets.

Cost of Student Loans:

The cost of student loans is derived by application of the rate, currently 31%, determined by the student loans repayment model which incorporates long-term forecasts for both a discount factor and an RPI figure. Although these two elements are incorporated into the model on a long-term forecast basis, the cost of student loans rate is set for the Spending Review period, which is currently 2008-09 to 2010-11. Therefore, changes to the interest rate and rate of inflation will have no immediate effect on the cost of student loans for this spending review period.

These factors have no effect on the student loans advanced.

Question reference: S3W-19182

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
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.

Question reference: S3W-19189

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many students study at further education institutions, broken down by income.

In 2006-07 there were 363,520 students at colleges, holding a total of 468,155 enrolments:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Lifelong-learning/DataTypeFEC.

Income details for college students undertaking further education courses and those on most part-time higher education courses are not held centrally.

Full-time higher education students in colleges and a small number of part-time students who receive support from Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) provide income details to SAAS. The following table provides parental or spousal income details for those students.

Higher Education College Students Supported by SAAS, by Income Band, 2007-08

Income Band
Income Not Declared/Required	5,535
Less Than £10,000	3,335
£10,000 to £19,999	3,425
£20,000 to £29,999	2,435
£30,000 to £39,999	1,680
£40,000 to £49,999	925
£50,000 to £59,999	455
£60,000 to £69,999	185
£70,000 to £79,999	90
£80,000 to £89,999	45
£90,000 to £99,998	10
Above Means Tested Threshold	55
Exempt from Parental/Spousal Contribution	6,940
All Supported College Students	25,115

Notes:

The income stated is residual income, i.e. after the deductions allowed by SAAS.

All figures have been rounded to the nearest five.

Question reference: S3W-18995

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 14 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there will be consequential funding from the new £6 million Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Greener Living Fund and, if so, how these funds will be spent.

There will be no new consequential funding from the new £6 million Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Greener Living Fund. When consequential funding occurs, those consequentials accrue to the Scottish block as a whole and do not fall to the Scottish portfolio equivalent of wherever the money is going in England. The Scottish Government decides its own priorities for the use of all money in the Scottish block.

The Scottish Government recognises the vital contribution that the third sector makes. We wish to secure the development of an innovative, sustainable and inclusive third sector which supports communities and contributes to high quality public services and to increased sustainable economic growth for the benefit of all the people of Scotland. To support this we are investing £93.6 million in the third sector during 2008-11.