Chamber and committees

Scottish Government does not collect data on annual costs of childcare on a regular basis and has not calculated the average annual cost to parents of childcare.

Information on student loan debt is held and published by the Student Loans Company (SLC).

http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment/scotland.aspx

The latest publication, covering financial year 2015-16, showed that the average student loan debt for the 2016 cohort, which just entered repayment, was £10,500. The publication does not contain the other information requested.

The following table shows the number of students, who received the maximum amount of bursary in the last five academic years, and the number who received less than the maximum.

The following table shows the number of students that were assessed by Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) for the maximum loan available and those that were assessed for an amount less than the maximum.

This information is only available for the last three academic years. Analysis for 2011-12 and 2012-13 is not available because there were a large number of fluctuations on the maximum loan available, with amounts being based on the actual term dates for each course.

Source: SAAS

Note: Analysis is based on those receiving the exact maximum amounts – there may be some who initially would have been entitled to the maximum, though what they actually received may have been adjusted to account for issues such as overpayments from previous sessions being recovered. Loans are based on what SAAS authorised, what the student actually took out through the Student Loans Company (SLC) may be different. The analysis does not cover those who “claimed”, only those who received support. We do not hold information on those who “claimed” a loan but did not receive one.

Information on the number of eligible students who did not apply for a loan or bursary is not available.

A total of 37,820 students received the additional £125 bursary in 2015-16. The bursary was payable to eligible students who were already in receipt of a bursary and were from a household with an income below £24,000. 30,930 students who received the bursary were from households with an annual income below £16,999.

The £125 additional bursary was embedded in the student support rates for 2016-17 which means all eligible students will receive this additional payment going forward.

The following table shows the students who received the additional bursary in 2015-16 by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2012.

Source: Student Awards Agency Scotland

Note: SIMD 2012 identifies small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland in a consistent way. The SIMD ranks small areas (called datazones) from most deprived (ranked 1) to least deprived (ranked 6,505). Analysis here is based on quintiles which split the ranks in to five equal sized groups, such as the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland.

The following table shows the maximum amount of bursary available in the last five academic years.

The following table shows the maximum amount of living cost loan available in the last three academic years.

Analysis for 2011-12 and 2012-13 is not available because there were a large number of fluctuations on the maximum loan available, with amounts being based on the actual term length of each course and the location of study for students.

Source: SAAS

Information on student loan debt is held and published by the Student Loans Company (SLC).

http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment/scotland.aspx

The latest publication, covering financial year 2015-16, showed that the total balance outstanding (including loans not yet due for repayment) was £4.0 billion.

Source: Student Loans Company

On 15 November I set out details for three delivery trials to be progressed from January 2017, located in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders. A news release which provides further details on the individual trials can be found at: http://news.gov.scot/news/making-free-childcare-more-flexible

We will make a further announcement on the Programme of trials in December.

No. The recently published Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) statistical publication contained an inaccurate statement. We apologise for this inaccuracy and will revise the relevant entry in the report.

The reason for introducing a simplified higher education student support package in academic year 2013-14 was to increase the amount of support available to students and deliver a minimum income guarantee of £7,250 per year for students from the poorest households. We worked with stakeholders, including NUS Scotland, to achieve this, putting more money in the pockets of students to support their living costs during their period of free higher education study. The introduction of the new support package was welcomed at the time by these stakeholders.

The Scottish Government has not replaced grants with loans. Eligible students remain entitled to apply for a mixture of both. This is in contrast to the UK Government, which abolished maintenance grants entirely for new students in England from academic year 2016-17. The Scottish Government increased the maximum bursary for the poorest household to £1,875 last year and, effective from the current academic year, increased the household income threshold for award of the maximum bursary (£1,875) from £17,000 to £19,000.

There is no analysis undertaken as the data is not gathered or held centrally. As digital transformation plans are developed, a full assessment of the impact at all levels including equality, business and people, will be undertaken.

We’re committed to ensuring the public sector workforce is fit-for-purpose and can deliver on our digital transformation ambitions. This includes ensuring the resources we have are invested in front-line services.

Digital transformation in itself requires the employment of a range of professions as we design digital services, standardise our processes across the public sector and simplify processes for the user. Potential effects of ‘automation’, are problematic to quantify, as there are often unforeseen developments in any given labour market with technological advances.

However, the report by Deloitte also indicated that Brexit was an important threat to Scotland’s economy, jobs and long-term prosperity.

Analysis shows that the potential cost of leaving the European Union to the Scottish economy is up to £11.2 billion per year by 2030. And the independent Fraser of Allander Institute has forecast that Brexit could cost Scotland up to 80,000 jobs over the next decade.