- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the contracts for Forestry Commission Scotland renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011 have review points where increasing payments from companies with access to the commission’s estate might be considered.
Answer
The lease arrangements are structured to provide income to Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) based on a share of the gross income generated by specific projects or a share of net income where FCS is joint venture partner or a combination of both. Therefore if income rises due to increasing energy costs FCS will benefit.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of community renewables development scheme that have previously been worked up to the appropriate level for consideration under the provisions of the Forestry Commission Scotland renewables contracts out to tender.
Answer
Where Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) was aware of community schemes that had started doing some preparatory work before the renewables contracts were announcement on 22 February, FCS built that knowledge into the arrangements by withholding the relevant forest blocks from the process. This has happened in the case of Dalavich, Strathyre and Mull.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive how many community projects were developed as part of the hydro-tendering process by the Forestry Commission Scotland renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011.
Answer
The results of the hydro-tendering process were announced in August and October 2010. The appointed development companies are still in the exclusivity phase and nothing has been decided as yet. Discussions are underway with some communities however.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive which banks provided assistance in drawing up the contracts for the Forestry Commission Scotland’s renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011.
Answer
No banks were involved in drawing up the contracts but financial advice was provided by Grant Thornton''s Edinburgh office. However, prior to the tendering exercise FCS received advice on renewable energy developments from Fortis Bank.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive on what basis it proposed the deadline of eight months from the agreement of exclusivity arrangements for communities to propose their own renewables projects on the Forestry Commission Scotland estate.
Answer
This was considered to be a reasonable time for the development partner companies to assess the potential and draw up a portfolio of suitable sites.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average bursary award has been for (a) part-time and (b) full-time students at colleges and universities in Edinburgh and the Lothians region in each of the last five years, broken down by institution.
Answer
Bursary payments to Scottish students are paid out by Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) for full-time higher education (HE) students, and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) allocates further funds for further education (FE) students. The most recent year where data collection for bursary payments is complete is 2009-10, so this answer contains data for academic sessions 2005-06 to 2009-10.
In these academic sessions, full-time Scottish students studying at HE level in Scotland are eligible to apply for Young Students'' Bursary (YSB). The bursary is income assessed, and is paid out to students who were under 25 before the first day of the first academic year of your course and have not been supporting themselves through earnings for at least three years. YSB is paid out instead of part of the maintenance loan, so it reduces the amount of loan that these students will be entitled to. Table 1 therefore shows the average YSB payments to full-time students for each institution in Edinburgh and Lothians, for 2005-06 to 2009-10.
Table 1: Average Bursary Payments to Full-Time Higher Education Students Studying at Institutions in Edinburgh and Lothians, 2005-06 to 2009-10 (£)
| Edinburgh Institutions | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 |
| Queen Margaret University | 1,910 | 1,916 | 1,954 | 1,985 | 2,136 |
| Edinburgh''s Telford College | 1,863 | 1,970 | 1,935 | 2,014 | 2,079 |
| Edinburgh College of Art | 1,913 | 1,894 | 1,963 | 1,910 | 2,040 |
| Stevenson College | 1,957 | 1,908 | 1,986 | 2,109 | 2,105 |
| Edinburgh University | 1,775 | 1,814 | 1,854 | 1,885 | 1,923 |
| Napier University | 1,880 | 1,939 | 1,983 | 2,008 | 2,088 |
| Heriot-Watt University | 1,790 | 1,865 | 1,930 | 1,965 | 2,049 |
| Lothians institutions | | | | | |
| Oatridge Agricultural College | 1,842 | 1,821 | 1,856 | 1,773 | 1,912 |
| West Lothian College | 1,901 | 2,068 | 2,074 | 1,914 | 2,036 |
| Jewel and Esk Valley College | 2,008 | 2,001 | 2,075 | 2,021 | 2,077 |
Source: SAAS Management Information.
The Scottish Funding Council allocate money to college institutions in respect of students who are studying at further education level. These funds can be accessed by full-time students or part-time students on the basis of study, travel, or special educational needs. However, because institutions distribute the money as they see fit, the total number of students that benefited from these allocations of money was not available so it was not possible to calculate an average payment. Therefore, table 2 shows the total amounts allocated to each college in the Edinburgh and Lothians regions.
Table 2: Total Bursary Amounts Allocated by Scottish Funding Council to Colleges in Edinburgh and Lothians, 2005-06 to 2009-10
| Edinburgh Colleges | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 |
| Edinburgh''s Telford College | £2,441,659 | £2,746,050 | £2,687,411 | £2,961,324 | £3,552,944 |
| Stevenson College | £1,864,943 | £2,097,509 | £2,164,474 | £2,638,576 | £2,911,232 |
| Lothians Colleges | | | | | |
| Jewel and Esk College | £1,043,917 | £1,389,652 | £1,165,197 | £1,450,441 | £1,773,488 |
| West Lothian College | £977,562 | £1,079,000 | £1,139,508 | £1,231,406 | £1,302,431 |
| Oatridge College | £356,698 | £414,281 | £413,188 | £512,470 | £572,242 |
Source: Scottish Funding Council.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the antisocial behaviour framework debate in the Parliament on 16 December 2010 (Official Report, c.31759), whether it will provide details of how Edinburgh is benefiting from the Community Wellbeing Champions Initiative.
Answer
In March 2010 I announced £100,000 in support of the Community Wellbeing Champions Initiative. So far the Initiative has been piloted in five areas across Scotland: Fife; Shetland; North Lanarkshire; South Lanarkshire, and Stirling.
Evaluation of these pilots is currently taking place, and a full report of the Initiative will be included in the second annual report to Parliament.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive how the community benefits from Forestry Commission Scotland’s renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011 will be administered and which organisations will oversee this.
Answer
It will be for the appointed development companies for the different lots to engage with and agree the details with communities based upon the template agreed with Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS). FCS will additionally publish guidance for communities on the options available and Community Energy Scotland has been contracted by the Scottish Government to provide advice to communities on these possibilities.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive how communities will be consulted on spending priorities arising from benefits received from Forestry Commission Scotland’s renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011.
Answer
Representative communities who engage with the developers will receive the level of benefit and direct investment agreed on their behalf by Forestry Commission Scotland with the developer for each lot. As such it will be entirely up to the properly constituted body to decide how to make use of such income going forward.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what benefits it expects communities will receive from the Forestry Commission Scotland renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011.
Answer
Forestry Commission Scotland has secured leading edge community benefits of up to £5,000 per mw per annum for both wind and hydro developments. Communities, if they so wish, will be able to invest this payment in a share of the development. Also, they have the choice to add extra cash of their own to build a greater stake for the community.
We estimate that this new programme could generate up to 500mw per annum and if this is realised then it could mean a windfall of £2.5 million per annum for communities.
