Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-21147

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 1 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20806 by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 January 2019, what the initial terms of reference were of the multi-stakeholder reference group when it was established.

Question reference: S5W-21148

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 1 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20806 by Roseanna Cunningham on 16 January 2019, who the representatives attending the multi-stakeholder group are.

Question reference: S5W-21158

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 1 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much compensation or money spent on restoration works has been paid out by Scottish Water to customers in each of the last four years, and what was the (a) average and (b) largest payment each year.

Scottish Water can make payment to customers as a result of asset failures that have triggered Service Standard payments or claims made and settled via Scottish Water’s Public Liability Insurance.

Scottish Water supplies water and waste water services to over 5 million customers across Scotland via 60,000 miles of pipes and thousands of assets. If there is an asset failure (such as flooding caused by a burst water pipe) which has affected customers and Scottish Water is liable, these claims are fully assessed and settled via Public Liability Insurance. Scottish Water also operates under an agreed Service Standards framework to also protect customers’ interests and pay where there is a service failure.

Scottish Water’s Service Standards can be viewed at: https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/contact-us/our-promise-to-you/our-services-your-rights/our-service-standards

The payments listed below are for Public Liability cases over the last 4 years.

Public Liability Compensation Payments to Customers by Scottish Water

Year	Total SW payments £	Average Payment £	Largest payment £
2014-15	797,841	4,721	83,107
2015-16	1,613,291	9,166	400,000
2016-17	1,009,928	6,234	140,676
2017-18	687,676	4,271	174,780

Service Standards

Year	Total SW payments £	Average Payment £	Largest payment £
2014-15	127,375	292	470
2015-16	118,012	331	470
2016-7	124,136	319	470
2017-18	114,770	303	470

Question reference: S5W-21152

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 1 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will work with (a) older people organisations such as Age Scotland and (b) older people to determine whether proposals to reduce the single person discount for water charges should proceed.

Question reference: S5W-21153

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 1 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to engage directly with older people at every stage of the process for considering proposals to reduce the single person discount for water charges.

Question reference: S5W-20800

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 1 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, of its estimated total of all unpaid student loans, how much is due to (a) the recipient not meeting the income repayment threshold and (b) default by the recipient.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) estimate that, at the end of 2017-18, there was an estimated outstanding student loan balance of
‎ £4,984.5 million. Of this, they estimate that:

(a) Information on the proportion of the total outstanding balance that is due to the repayment threshold is not publically available or held centrally by the Scottish Government. A request can be made directly to the SLC for this information.

(b) £10.6 million (0.2%) is due to default by the recipient.

Source: SLC (2018) Student loans debt and repayment, https://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment/scotland.aspx ).

Question reference: S5W-20802

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 31 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what estimates it has made of how many unpaid student loans there will be in the next (a) 5, (b) 10 and (c) 15 years, based on the (i) previous and (ii) latest Scottish student loan repayment thresholds, expressed in (A) cash and (B) percentage terms.

The following table shows the cash value of student loans that are estimated to be unpaid and written-off in the next 5, 10 and 15 years for both the previous and latest student loan repayment thresholds.

(A) Cash value of unpaid student loans

Real terms (2018-19 prices)**	Cash value of total unpaid loans (£m)*
Real terms (2018-19 prices)**	a) 5 years	b) 10 years	c) 15 years
Latest repayment threshold (i)	48.8	107.9	287.6
Previous repayment threshold (ii)	48.4	104.4	258.6

Note: 2018-19 is the base financial year. 5 years relates to financial year 2023-24, 10 years relates to 2028-29 and 15 years relates to 2033-34.

*The cash value of total unpaid loans is the total loan write-offs that have occurred up to that point.

**Real terms calculated by deflating cash values to 2018-19 prices by using the growth rate of the loans i.e. the interest rate = minimum of RPI or BoE base rate+1%.

(B) There is no meaningful total against which these cash values can be expressed in percentage terms. The outstanding loan balance increases with each year’s outlay and changes from year to year depending on repayments and write-offs which are already taken into account. Write-offs can be against loans taken at any point in the past and are not comparable with the loan balance in the same year.

Question reference: S5W-20801

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 31 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its estimate is of the proportion of the existing student loan book that will not be repaid, in (a) percentage and (b) cash terms, as at the end of 2017-18.

The value of the student loan book disclosed in the Scottish Government accounts reflects the likelihood that a proportion of student loans will not be repaid (the accounts show the ‘fair value’).

Student loans drawn down in the current year are adjusted to reflect expected write-offs and the interest rate subsidy. Those charges were 13.5% (£84.3m) and 11.1% respectively at 31 March 2017 (£66.2m).

Scottish Government also annually reviews the value of the historic loan book to assess the likely value of loans which will not be recovered. At 31 March 2017, the estimated loan write-off was 20.1% of the gross value of historic loans and the interest rate subsidy was 9.8%. The fair value of the loan book is then adjusted as necessary. In 2017-18, the fair value of the loan book was adjusted by £30.1m.

Question reference: S5W-20803

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 31 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent government accounts reclassification decision by the Office for National Statistics, whether it has agreed with the Treasury how student loans and debts are to be treated in Scottish Government accounts, and, if so, what changes it will make.

The reclassification decision affects the UK National Accounts, a statistical publication which is prepared under the European System of Accounts (ESA 10). The Scottish Government annual accounts are prepared under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and as such recognise the likelihood that a proportion of student loans will not be repaid. No change to the Scottish Government accounting treatment is required as a result of the reclassification decision.

Question reference: S5W-20799

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 31 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the proportion of all student loans paid to Scottish-domiciled students that will not be repaid, expressed as a percentage.

The Scottish Government estimates that 22.4% of student loans drawn down in 2018-19, and 30.2% of the total historic loan book, will not be repaid.

These estimates have increased from 13.5% and 20.1% respectively in 2017-18, please see the answer to question S5W-20801 on 31 January 2019, primarily as a result of the increased student loans repayment threshold. ‎

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .