Chamber and committees

In the Scottish parliamentary constituency of Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley 36 postgraduate students have been asked to repay the graduate endowment following the removal of the right to defer payment until completion of postgraduate study.

The Scottish Government’s School Transport: Survey of Good Practice, published last year, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 45729) emphasised how many of the examples cited involved consultation with both pupils and parents at the planning stages and that this good practice should be borne in mind.

There is no such definition in legislation. However, in a Scottish Executive Education Department Circular (No.7 of 2003), a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 29135), it was made clear that ministers expect authorities to keep under review their criteria for providing school transport in light of a range of safety considerations, for instance including volume and speed of traffic, availability of safe crossings, sufficiency of pavements, footpaths and subways, built-up and wooded areas and adequacy of street lighting. This remains the position.

Under the new Concordat with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the local government finance settlement for 2008-11 set out in Finance Circular No.1 2008, copies of which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 45732), the government has issued local authorities with increased levels of funding which are not earmarked or hypothecated to individual services.

Alongside that increase in funding, the government has also devolved significant controls and flexibilities to local government in how councils deploy those resources. It is the responsibility of each council to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of their local needs and priorities such as for the provision of school transport.

No. The relevant legislation makes it clear that local authorities may make arrangements as they consider necessary for the provision of travel to school. However, one factor the local authorities must take into consideration when making such considerations, is the safety of the pupils and in doing so may consider that in certain specific circumstances, they will provide transport for children living less than two miles from their designated school.

There are 106 premises currently registered by people from the Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley constituency who are essentially too distant from their exchange to receive broadband. They are thus included under our broadband reach procurement. The break down by postcode area is:

Postcode	Registered Premises
KA4	13
KA5	33
KA6	19
KA7	2
KA18	17
KA19	6
KA26	10
DG7	2
DG8	4

 

In addition, we are now aware of two confirmed cases in the Straiton exchange, within postcode KA19, which are affected by capacity issues and waiting for access to broadband. This specific issue is being discussed as part of our existing contract with BT for enabling remote exchanges.

Reliance Secure Task Management provides transportation for the sentenced children and young people placed in units by Scottish ministers.

Transportation matters relating to children and young people placed in secure accommodation by Children’s Panels is the responsibility of the relevant local authority.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13446 on 3 June 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.

The information requested is not held centrally.

A total of 10 Scottish credit unions applied for compensation for defaulted loans made to Farepak customers. This included eight credit unions based in Glasgow who applied to Glasgow City Council who operated a similar compensation scheme.