- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 22 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the First Minister’s statement on 17 April 2008 that higher education students pay council tax dependent on where they stay (Official Report c. 7686), what analysis it has made of where students live.
Answer
As a point of clarification, when the First Minister said that the number of higher education students paying council tax depends on where they stay, he was referring to the fact that some students live with non-students and partners and these students may be contributing to council tax as part of a household. While we do not hold information at this level of detail, we are consulting student representative organisations, amongst others, about our proposals and we expect that to provide additional information. An analysis of the consultation responses will be published in the autumn.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 22 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to the first supplementary to question S3F-710 by Alex Salmond on 24 April 2008, whether it will provide details of the 400,000 students liable for council tax, broken down by (a) institution of study and (b) course, also indicating whether their study is (i) full time, (ii) part time, (iii) night class or (iv) long distance learning.
Answer
While information is available by institution and by course for all students, information at the level of detail requested for the subset of students specified is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 22 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-12118 by John Swinney on 30 April 2008, whether that answer indicates that it has carried out an impact assessment into the local income tax and its effect on students.
Answer
We have made initial estimates of the likely impact on students of the local income tax proposals which are currently the subject of a consultation exercise. We are consulting student representative organisations, amongst others, as part of that consultation. We intend to assess the results of the consultation exercise currently underway before deciding the next steps.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 22 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-12119 by John Swinney on 30 April 2008, whether that answer indicates that it has carried out an evaluation of the proposed local income tax and its effect on students.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-12905 on 22 May 2008. 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/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 22 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-12123 by John Swinney on 30 April 2008, what its current estimate is of how much the student population in Scotland as a whole would pay under the proposed local income tax.
Answer
The answer would depend on a range of factors and it would not be appropriate to seek to estimate these at this stage.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 22 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time students are in higher and further education and, of these, how many are not exempt from paying the council tax and what the reasons are for their not being exempt.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-12341 on 22 May 2008. 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/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 02 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 22 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide calculations for the basis of the First Minister’s statements on 24 April 2008 that around 160,000 students are not liable for the council tax and that the vast majority of these students do not earn enough to pay the local income tax (Official Report, c. 7934).
Answer
As a point of clarification, the First Minister referred in Parliament on 24 April 2008 to around 160,000 students in Scotland not earning enough to pay local income tax. He did not say that 160,000 students are currently not liable for the council tax.
The total number of full time students in Scottish institutions in 2006-07 was 228,795. Initial estimates, using earnings related data for full-time students, indicated that perhaps around three quarters of these would not earn sufficient to bring them over the level of the personal allowance. The number who would be liable at the time of introduction of a local income tax would of course depend on the level of the personal allowance at that time.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 19 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether full-time students living in shared accommodation with other full-time students are liable to pay council tax.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-12347 on 2 May 2008. 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/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 19 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the First Minister’s statement on 17 April 2008 that higher education students pay council tax dependent on where they stay (Official Report c. 7686), what the relationship is between the location or type of accommodation of full-time higher education students and their liability to pay council tax
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-12347 on 2 May 2008. 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/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 April 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 16 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings have taken place between ministers and student groups since May 2007, who attended and what was discussed.
Answer
Meetings regularly take place between Scottish ministers and student groups. The following table provides details of all meetings which have taken place between Scottish ministers and student groups since May 2007, including who attended and topics for discussion:
| Minister | Meeting with | Topic | Date |
| Fiona Hyslop | HE, FE, student and union representatives | Roundtable Forum | 6 June 2007 |
| Fiona Hyslop | Presidents of Student Associations of each Scottish higher education institution, President of NUS and Convener of CHESS | Student Summit to discuss range of higher education issues | 31 August 2007 |
| Fiona Hyslop | HE, FE, student and union representatives | Roundtable Forum | 23 October 2007 |
| Fiona Hyslop | NUS Conference | Speech at the NUS conference | 1 March 2008 |
| Fiona Hyslop | President of NUS | Private meeting to discuss Joint Future Thinking Taskforce on Universities | 6 March 2008 |
| Fiona Hyslop | NUS and The joint Future Thinking Taskforce on Universities | NUS contribution to Taskforce | 16 March 2008 |
| Fiona Hyslop | Student representatives from around the country | Student Summit | 28 April 2008 |
| Jim Mather | UWS Student Union | Open Forum Q&A | 25 February 2008 |
| Nicola Sturgeon | Stow College Graduation Ceremony | Address and present awards | 15 November 2007 |
| Nicola Sturgeon | Meeting Dental Students Aberdeen | Attending Dental Institute | 21 January 2008 |
| Nicola Sturgeon | Addressing Glasgow Caledonian Students re. development of policy in health and social care | Address | 4 April 2008 |
| Shona Robison | Scottish Youth Parliament Health Committee | Public Health Issues | 23 January 2008 |
| Maureen Watt | National Union of Students Scotland Conference | Roles of students and how NUS can work with Government | 21 November 2008 |
| Elish Angiolini QC Lord Advocate | Law School students, University of Edinburgh | Criminal Law | 6 November 2007 |
