- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on West Lothian Council's support for a full community and health care partnership building on the success of its integrated trust model, the joint future arrangements for community services expanded to include appropriate services for children, the health improvement agenda and the West Lothian Community Planning Partnership and whether the Scottish Executive will issue guidance to ensure that West Lothian Council representation on such a community and health care partnership's management committee includes trade union representatives and a politically-balanced representation of elected members.
Answer
The establishment of communityhealth partnerships is dependent on the passage of the NHS (Reform) ScotlandBill. The views of a wide range of stakeholders have been taken into account inpreparing the draft legislation and the guidance which will describe thegovernance arrangements for community health partnerships. When the legislationis in place NHS boards will be required to submit to Ministers proposals forthe establishment of community health partnerships in the NHS board’s area. Itwould not be appropriate to comment on a particular model for a community healthpartnership until the legislation is in place and the proposals from NHS boardshave received full consideration.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 8 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children leaving care were not in (a) full-time education, (b) employment or (c) training in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
This information wascollected for the first time in 2002-03. It showed that across Scotland 60%of young people leaving care were not in employment, education or training. Abreakdown by local authority area is not available as this was the first yearof collection and standards of data returns varied.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 3 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has carried out into the effects of tuition fees and the graduate endowment scheme on attitudes towards study in further and higher education.
Answer
In July, 1999, the Scottish Executive commissioned an independent committee of inquiry, headed by Mr Andrew Cubie,to conduct a comprehensive review of student finance, which in turncommissioned research to inform its report. Since then the Scottish Executive has not conducted research specifically on the effects of tuition feesand the graduate endowment scheme on attitudes towards study in further andhigher education. However, the Executive continues to make use of work conductedby academics and other researchers in the field of further and higher educationregarding student finance and possible barriers to participation. We alsomaintain close links with officials in DfES.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 3 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the average cost to a person of undertaking higher education, taking into account any (a) contribution towards fees, (b) graduate endowment obligation, (c) foregone earnings whilst studying and (d) other costs.
Answer
The cost to each studentwill vary depending upon the personal circumstances of the individual, wherethey are studying within the UK and the level and length of their course. The Scottish Executive is, therefore, unable to provide an estimate of the average cost to aperson undertaking a course in higher education. The level of the graduateendowment is fixed at the beginning of the course and we estimate that up to50% of graduates will be exempt.
The Executive is about tocommission a Scottish-based student income and expenditure survey. This surveywill provide comprehensive data on theincomes, expenditure and anticipated debt on graduation of a nationallyrepresentative sample of full time and part time undergraduate studentsstudying in Scotland and attending publicly funded higher education and furthereducation Institutions during the academic year 2004-05.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 3 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the total outstanding debt is to the student loans company from people still domiciled in Scotland.
Answer
The information requested isgiven on table number 6, page number 58 of the Student Loans Company annual report2001-02, published by the Student Loans Company in 2003, a copy of which isavailable in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 30921). The StudentLoans Company annual report 2002-03 will soon be published and copies will beplaced in the Parliament’s Reference Centre.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 3 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average level of debt has been for new graduates in each year since 1990.
Answer
The table shows the average graduate debt since 1999.
| Cohort | Average Debt |
| 1999 | £2,863 |
| 2000 | £3,174 |
| 2001 | £3,876 |
| 2002 | £4,294 |
| 2003 | £4,924 |
Source: Student Loans Company (SLC).
Statistics on debt were not maintained by SLC until the introduction of income contingent repayment loans in 1998.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 3 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the current real term value is of the maximum student grant available in (a) 1979, (b) 1988 and (c) 1997.
Answer
The figures requested are shown in the table:
Maximum Student Grant Available
| Year | Amount of Grant | Value in 2003 Prices* |
| 1979 | £1,245 | £3,981 |
| 1988 | £1,990 | £3,375 |
| 1997 | £1,685 | £1,940 |
Note: *Using the retail price index as a deflator.
The maximum level of grant was frozen in 1990 with the introduction of mortgage style student loans. The level of grant was reduced and the maximum level of loan increased between 1994-95 and 1997-98 until the maximum support available was made up equally of grant and loan.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 3 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average student loan debt has been for graduates from (a) honours degree, (b) ordinary degree and (c) sub-degree level study when entering repayment status in each year for which figures are available.
Answer
This information is not heldcentrally.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 3 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the average cost to a person of undertaking further education, taking into account any (a) contribution towards fees, (b) graduate endowment obligation, (c) foregone earnings whilst studying and (d) other costs.
Answer
The cost to each studentwill vary depending upon the personal circumstances of the individual, wherethey are studying within the UK, and the level and length of their course. The Scottish Executive is, therefore, unable to provide an estimate of the average cost to aperson undertaking a course in further education. The graduate endowment doesnot apply to further education students.
The Executive is about tocommission a Scottish-based student income and expenditure survey. This surveywill provide comprehensive data on theincomes, expenditure and anticipated debt on graduation of a nationallyrepresentative sample of full-time and part-time undergraduate studentsstudying in Scotland and attending publicly funded higher education and furthereducation institutions during the academic year 2004-05.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 3 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what effect the graduate endowment is predicted to have on the repayment of student loans.
Answer
The amount of student loan thata graduate repays each month and the period of time over which repayments aremade are linked to the level of the borrower’s income and the amount borrowed. Under the support arrangements introduced in2001-02, many students who will be liable to pay the endowment when theygraduate will have been eligible to receive the Young Students Bursary in placeof part of their loan entitlement. Most liable graduates will have borrowedless under these arrangements than they would have had under the previoussystem. No student should have borrowed more.
