Chamber and committees

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are a central part of the Scottish Government's commitment to achieving almost total decarbonisation of road transport by 2050. Over the past two years, the Scottish Government has invested over £8 million in electric vehicles and infrastructure for Scottish public sector. This has enabled Scotland’s public services to purchase around 270 low carbon vehicles, including cars, vans and street sweepers, and install around 240 charging points across the country, with a further 170 charging points to be installed during 2012-13.

Charging infrastructure has been installed via the UK Government’s Plugged in Places (PiP) scheme, which has brought £2.25 million of linked funding into Scotland. The first round in 2011-12 focussed on locating electric vehicle charging points to support the developing fleet of public-sector electric vehicles, in 2012-13 we are continuing to work with the public sector and others to expand the network of charging infrastructure to include more publicly available locations such as park-and-ride sites, leisure centre car parks and on-street locations. Other plans for 2012-13 include creation of a Scottish PIP website with information on how to purchase electric vehicles and charging point locations.

In addition, we also fund a Low Carbon Loan Scheme operated by the Energy Saving Trust. This provides interest free loans of £500 to £50,000 to support organisations that want to reduce the carbon impact and fuel costs of their transport with more efficient alternatives, including the purchase of low carbon vehicles.

On 28 March we launched the E-cosse partnership which brings together Transport Scotland with car manufacturers, power companies, local authorities, Scottish Enterprise and WWF Scotland to advance wholesale adoption of EVs and maximise the opportunities for them to become an essential part of Scotland’s sustainable transport system. The partnership will not only educate motorists on the many benefits of driving an EV, but also find ways of making them a more realistic and accessible option wherever possible.

Every local authority in Scotland and their community planning partners received funding (£8 million in total) over 2010-11 and 2011-12 to buy low carbon vehicles and install supportive infrastructure.

The Your Scotland, Your Referendum Facebook page was created to stimulate discussion about the referendum and encourage responses to the consultation. Contributions to the Facebook page will not be counted as submissions to the consultation.

<>The Scottish Government’s new consultation hub, Citizen Space, has the following internet URL: https://consult.scotland.gov.uk. As stated on the website, a respondent’s Internet Protocol (IP) address will be recorded where individuals voluntarily contact the site by submitting a feedback form.

Through the Future Transport Fund we will invest £16.7 million across Scotland over the next three years in activities to support the uptake of electric and other low carbon vehicles, including green buses, and the installation of charging infrastructure: in 2012-13 £1 million, plus an additional £1.45 million in linked funding from the UK Government through the Plugged in Places Scheme; in 2013-14 £4.5 million, and in 2014-15 £9.75 million.

The allocation of funding is still under consideration.

The members of the Scottish Stakeholder Group involved in the development of Scotland’s Child Internet Safety Action Plan were representatives from the following organisations:

Scottish Government

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS)

Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders Executive Group (ELBEG)

Perth and Kinross Child Protection Committee

Fife Child Protection Committee

Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA)

Young Scot

HM Inspectorate of Education (Now Education Scotland)

Learning and Teaching Scotland (Now Education Scotland)

Scottish Enterprise

Respectme.

We have allowed for loans of up to £17 million in each of the next three years for the postgraduate tuition fee loan.

The Scottish Government estimates that around 5,000 full and part-time postgraduate students will be eligible to apply for non-means tested support towards the cost of their tuition fees under the postgraduate tuition fee loan in each of the next three years.

In academic years 2010-11 and 2011-12, under the Postgraduate Students’ Allowances Scheme (PSAS) eligible students could receive an allowance of up to £3,400 towards the cost of their tuition fees (£1,700 for part-time students).

In 2009-10, in addition to the contribution towards their tuition fees as outlined for 2010-11 and 2011-12, eligible students could also apply for a means tested living costs grant. The maximum amounts available to students on a standard 30 week course in 2009-10 were:

£2,850 – for students living in their parent’s home.

£3,770 – for students living away from home.

£4,780 – for students living away from home in London.

For students studying over 30 weeks and three days they were entitled to an additional £45, £76 or £98 per week respectively.

In 2009-10, 1,825 students were assisted under the Postgraduate Students’ Allowances Scheme (PSAS). This increased to 2,332 in 2010-11 and 2,329 in 2011-12.