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: S3W-13932

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow Pollok, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many adults living in families with incomes below £16,000 per annum are currently paying prescription charges.

Question reference: S3W-13934

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow Pollok, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 13 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the average rent per week for housing association properties in England.

Question reference: S3W-13933

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow Pollok, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 13 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average rent is per week for housing association properties in Scotland.

Statistics on Scottish Registered Social Landlords are published by the Scottish Housing Regulator. The most up to date information on housing association rents was provided in the Review of Scottish Registered Social Landlords 2006-07, which gave the average weekly secure rent of Scottish housing associations in 2006-07 as £51.76. It is available on the Scottish Housing Regulator’s website at:

http://www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk/stellent/groups/public/documents/webpages/shr_reviewofscottishregistered.pdf.

Question reference: S3W-13464

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow Pollok, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 13 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in the event of there being no written evidence that equality impact assessments have been carried out by local authorities on their draft single outcome agreements, these draft agreements will not be signed off by the Scottish Government.

It is intended that single outcome agreements (SOAs) will develop over time and equality impact assessments will be part of that process. The Scottish Government would not delay signing off an SOA at this stage because the EQIA is not complete. However, we are emphasising to councils and Community Planning Partnerships their responsibilities in relation to the public sector equality duties, in particular toward 2009-10 when we expect SOAs will include Community Planning Partnerships.

Question reference: S3W-13465

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow Pollok, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 13 June 2008

Question reference: S3W-13678

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow Pollok, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many disabled students were not eligible for the disabled students allowance for each academic year from 2001-02 to 2007-08.

The number of disabled students who applied and were not eligible for the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) for each academic years from 2001-02 to 2007-08 is provided in the following tables. The statistics contained within the tables are broken by the reason why the student was not eligible for DSA.

2001-02
Course not SAAS funded	4
Late Application / Report received too late	9
EU Students / not eligible residence	1
No confirmation of disability/no recommendations	4
Total not eligible	18

2002-03
Course not SAAS funded	3
Late Application / Report received too late	2
EU Students / not eligible residence	2
No confirmation of disability/no recommendations	4
Total not eligible	11

2003-04
Course not SAAS funded	3
EU Students / not eligible residence	4
No confirmation of disability/no recommendations	6
Large Items paid previously	5
Total not eligible	18

2004-05
Course not SAAS funded	3
No confirmation of disability/no recommendations	2
Large Items paid previously	1
Total not eligible	6

2005-06
Course not SAAS funded	4
Late Application / Report received too late	2
EU Students / not eligible residence	4
No confirmation of disability/no recommendations	7
Total not eligible	17

2006-07
Course not SAAS funded	2
EU Students / not eligible residence	1
Total not eligible	3

2007-08
EU Students / not eligible residence	3
No confirmation of disability/no recommendations	2
Total not eligible (at this stage in the academic year)	5

Source: These statistics were manually collated from SAAS data.

Question reference: S3W-13679

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow Pollok, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 11 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many disabled students did not apply for the disabled students allowance for each academic year from 2001-02 to 2007-08.

The Scottish Government has no way of ascertaining how many disabled students chose not to apply for the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) for each academic year from 2001-02 to 2007-08.

However, the following table shows the number of higher education students at Scottish higher education institutions and colleges that have declared a disability. It is worth noting that these statistics are reliant on students choosing to declare their disability. The table also shows the number of students who have been in receipt of the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) for each academic year from 2001-02 to 2006-07.

The table does not contain statistics for 2007-08 as this data has not yet be published.

Academic Year	Students in Receipt of DSA*	HE students at Scottish Higher Education Institutions & Colleges that have Declared a Disability**
2001-02	1,645	10,955
2002-03	2,040	11,620
2003-04	2,410	13,125
2004-05	2,775	15,185
2005-06	3,165	16,090
2006-07	3,385	17,870

*Source: Students Awards Agency for Scotland.

**Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency and Scottish Funding Council.

Note: Student numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.

Question reference: S3W-13681

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow Pollok, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 10 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many students were lone parents but not in receipt of Lone Parents Grant for each academic year from 2001-02 to 2007-08.

Question reference: S3W-13463

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow Pollok, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 9 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is written evidence that local authorities have carried out equality impact assessments on their draft single outcome agreements.

Question reference: S3W-13466

Asked by: Johann Lamont, MSP for Glasgow Pollok, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 9 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether all equality impact assessments on draft single outcome agreements will be made publicly available