- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 3 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-12348 by John Swinney on 22 May 2008, how many of the 388,560 students potentially liable to pay council tax would qualify to receive a (a) 100% discount or (b) lesser discount on their council tax.
Answer
It is by virtue of being full-time and not part-time that a student is disregarded for the purposes of council tax. Where a part-time student is disregarded or eligible for some form of exemption from council tax, this is unrelated to their part-time student status and no accurate breakdown of the figures regarding part-time students and council tax payment (provided in answer to question S3W-12348) is therefore available.
Similarly, while a part-time student may be eligible for a 25% single person’s discount that is due to their single as opposed to their student status. And, while other exemptions, discounts or disregards may apply, more important is the likelihood of potential liability for council tax.
- 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 29 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many further education students in (a) full-time and (b) part-time education are paying council tax.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- 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 29 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many Open University students are paying council tax.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- 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 29 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many distance learning students are paying council tax.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- 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 29 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many night class students are paying council tax.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- 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 29 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many higher education students in (a) full-time and (b) part-time education are paying council tax.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- 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 Fiona Hyslop on 27 May 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it has provided to institutions to alleviate student hardship in each of the last three years and how much it will provide in each of the next three years.
Answer
The total amounts allocated to institutions to alleviate hardship over the past three years is as follows:
2007-08: £14.7 million
2006-07: £14.4 million
2005-06: £13.7 million.
The total allocation for 2008-09 has not yet been finalised but will increase in line with inflation. It will also include an additional £1 million that has been provided to support the new package of support for part-time students. The figure for subsequent years cannot be provided at this stage but it would be expected to rise in line with inflation.
- 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 24 April 2008 that some 400,000 students in Scotland are currently liable for the council tax (Official Report c. 7934), which categories of student are included in this calculation and how many students there are in each category.
Answer
Part-time students aged 18 and over are not exempt from paying council tax by virtue of their student status and so are potentially liable for council tax. Some full-time students in further education are enrolled on courses that do not qualify them for a council tax exemption as the course is not considered long enough to be full-time for council tax purposes, and they will also be potentially liable. On that basis, the numbers of part-time students that are potentially liable for council tax break down as follows:
| Postgraduate | 41,550 |
| First Degree | 15,985 |
| Other HE | 49,300 |
| FE | 281,725 |
| Total | 388,560 |
Note: This information is based on Higher Education Statistics Agency and Scottish Funding Council enrolment data, and excludes; dormant, visiting exchange, writing up and sabbatical students at HEIs, as well as those college students who failed to complete 25% of their course.
- 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 24 April 2008 that some 160,000 students in Scotland are currently not liable for the council tax (Official Report c. 7934), which categories of students are included in this calculation and how many students there are in each category.
Answer
As a point of clarification, the First Minister referred in the 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.
A breakdown of the estimated numbers of full-time students in 2006-07 who were potentially exempt from paying council tax is given below.
| Postgraduate Students | 30,040 |
| First degree Students | 117,600 |
| Other Students in Higher Education | 35,870 |
| Students in Further Education | 38,720 |
| Total | 222,230 |
Notes:
(i) Full-time students are exempt from paying council tax in most cases. Some full-time students in further education are enrolled on courses that do not qualify them for a council tax exemption as the course is not considered long enough to be full-time for council tax purposes. A number of other full-time students will be liable for other reasons, but the number of such students is not currently known.
(ii) The figures in the table above are based on Higher Education Statistics Agency and Scottish Funding Council enrolment data. They exclude dormant, visiting exchange, writing-up and sabbatical students at higher education institutions, as well as those college students who failed to complete 25% of their course.
- 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 how many students in full time education are paying council tax.
Answer
There were 228,795 full-time students in Scottish institutions in 2006-07. Of these, 222,230 were potentially exempt from council tax. It is not possible to say that all were exempt because some may have made a contribution to council tax, for example if they were part of a household with other non-students shared or if they lived with a partner or spouse, or if they were a full-time student landlord, or if they were liable during the summer holidays as a consequence of the way the legislation interprets their enrolment information. However, we do not hold information on the numbers who may have been in these various categories. The remaining 6,565 students were liable for the tax because they were not on courses that were long enough to qualify for the exemption.
