Scottish Executive

Housing

Jim Tolson (Dunfermline West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) expenditure and (b) unit approvals in the Affordable Housing Investment Programme were for (i) each local authority area and (ii) Scotland for 2007-08, also showing the distribution of investment for (A) registered social landlords for rented accommodation, (B) registered social landlords for low cost home ownership, (C) other suppliers, (D) new council housing, (E) Glasgow Housing Association’s costs, (F) mortgage-to-rent schemes, (G) Open Market Shared Equity and (H) other programmes.

Stewart Maxwell: Expenditure and unit approvals in the Affordable Housing Investment Programme for 2007-08 by local authority area is set out in the following table:

Note: *One thousand, five hundred and sixty-three houses were approved in a four year programme for the Devanha group of local registered social landlords starting in 2007. This covers all planned starts in Aberdeen City in 2008-09 and most planned starts in Aberdeenshire and Moray in 2008-09.

The distribution of the 2007-08 Affordable Housing Investment Programme expenditure split into the categories requested is as follows:

The original approved programme was £584 million. An extra £10 million of funding was allocated during the course of the financial year, resulting in actual spend of over £594 million.

Sport

Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to increase participation in rowing among young people to build on the success of those who are currently excelling in the sport.

Stewart Maxwell: The Scottish Government is committed to increasing participation in sport across the whole population and recognises the importance of young people being able to access a range of sports activities to develop and improve the skills required that will enable them to enjoy sport throughout their lives.

However, it must be recognised that the Scottish governing body, in this case, Scottish Rowing and their clubs, are the lead in developing their sport.

The Scottish Government, through sportscotland, has made significant funding and support available to Scottish Rowing to help develop their sport and make it accessible to young people.

Additionally, there is work through Active Schools in introducing children to the sport of rowing. The latest period that figures are available is 2006-07 which show that the Active Schools Network (across primary and secondary) delivered the following participant sessions in rowing:

Term 1 – 3,691

Term 2 – 3,331

Term 3 – 2,912.

Student Finance

Claire Baker (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much student support it (a) provided in each of the last three years and (b) will provide over each of the next three years to (i) full-time undergraduate, (ii) part-time undergraduate, (ii) full-time postgraduate, (iii) part-time postgraduate and (iv) all students, also broken down by average amount per student.

Maureen Watt: The amount of student support provided to each of the four student groups and the average amount per student in the past three academic years was:

Source for all tables: Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS)

All student numbers have been rounded to the nearest five. Monetary amounts are rounded to the nearest 1,000.

A full-time/part-time split is not available for postgraduate students.

Although the average support for part-time undergraduate students is around £1,100 in each year, the majority of such students (72-73%) receive £500 in financial support from SAAS. The average however includes the Disabled Student’s Allowance (DSA) payable to some students.

"Support" refers to tuition fees (or tuition fee loans for those studying elsewhere in the UK) and/or awards and/or maintenance loans.

These tables do not include students on the Nursing and Midwifery Bursary Scheme. Academic year 2006-07 is latest for which data from SAAS is available.

Spending plans for the three financial years 2008-9 to 2010-11 are set out in the Scottish Budget Spending Review 2007, table 22.04 published on the internet at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/13092240/0.

The figures include the new support for part-time students to be introduced from autumn 2008 at a cost of £12/£13/£13 million for the three years of the plan. Projected spend is not disaggregated for the categories requested.

Correction

The reply to question S3W-14185 which was originally answered on 19 July 2008, has been corrected: see page 3776 or http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/pqa/wa-08/wa0708.htm.