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The Scottish Government is firmly committed to achieving its ambition that every child, whatever their socio-economic background, should have an equal chance of attending university. The letter of guidance to the Scottish Funding Council makes clear that there should be no diminution in efforts to widen access and our expectation that progress should be reflected in continued improvements in national measures. It is also important to recognise that there are a range of barriers and issues that affect access, many of which are not related to finance. The Scottish Government established the Commission on Widening Access to identify such issues and advise us on the steps necessary to drive further and faster progress.

In 2012-13, the original maximum budget available to meet the Resource Accounting and Budget charge for providing student loans (excluding the Spring Budget Revision in readiness for the sale of the mortgage style student loan book) was £88.4 million.

The following table provides information on average gross revenue expenditure in Scotland per pre-school registration, primary pupil and secondary pupil along with information on teaching allocations per college and university place.

The following table provides the same information in 2014-15 prices:

For pre-school education, the estimates are derived by dividing the total expenditure on pre-school education reported by local authorities in the local finance return by the total number of early learning and childcare registrations reported in the Scottish Government early learning and childcare statistics. The data for the latter is collected by census based on registrations in a given week in January in 2008-2010 and September in 2010-13 (January 2010 data was used for 2009-10 and September 2010 data was used for 2010-11).

For primary and secondary education, average gross revenue expenditure per pupil is total gross revenue expenditure reported by local authorities on primary or secondary education, sourced from the local financial return, divided by the number of pupils in that school sector on pupil census date during the September of the relevant year.

For pre-school, primary and secondary education, data from 2007-08 and 2008-09 cannot be directly compared with data for 2009-10 onwards as there was an accounting methodology change.

Data from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) on college teaching allocations per place is derived by taking funding provided to colleges for core teaching and fee waiver grant, divided by the weighted SUMs (relative costs to a college of delivering different subject) to derive expenditure by full time equivalent (FTE). Expenditure excludes tuition fees not paid by SFC (mainly the Student Awards Agency for Scotland) and student support funding along with funding from European Social Fund.

Data from SFC on University teaching allocations per place is derived by taking the total teaching grant provided by SFC for teaching places, divided by the total FTEs. The expenditure figures do not include funding for student support, SFC’s research and strategic funds or the tuition fees that SAAS pay. The total FTE figures are SFC and Scottish Government funded places and do not include fees only and international places. The rest of UK places were removed from 2012-13 on a phased basis (new students in 2012-13 and each new cohort thereafter over a five year period).

Real terms figures are in 2014-15 prices and are calculating using HM Treasury's GDP deflator series, December 2015.

Rural Payments and Inspections Division have recruited 36 additional staff in order to help speed up processing and payments. We currently have one additional staff member based in the Lerwick area office and two additional staff members in the Kirkwall Area Office.

Rural Payments and Inspections Division have recruited 36 additional staff in order to help speed up processing and payments. The location of each of these staff members is shown on the following table:

It is not yet possible to confirm a date, although we expect to begin new procurement activity later in 2016. There are a number of steps that need to be taken prior to announcing our plans in detail. This includes finalising coverage to be delivered by the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme, undertaking an Open Market Review to establish commercial plans and agreeing the appropriate state aid route. Currently we are working with the UK Government to develop a proposal to the European Commission for a new UK-wide state aid scheme for broadband. We expect this to be finalised in the coming months.

I announced on 30 December 2015 the further work that would be undertaken following the responses to Zero Waste Scotland’s call for evidence. That includes the impacts on local authorities, small retailers and consumers, and other key issues.

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 makes provision for ministers to introduce a deposit return scheme.

I announced on 30 December 2015 the next steps following the call for evidence undertaken by Zero Waste Scotland, which involves further work to explore key issues identified in that call for evidence.

I wrote to ministers in the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive on 31 January 2016 inviting them to discuss the further consideration of key issues on deposit return I announced on 30 December 2015. I am happy to provide the member with a copy of these letters.