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Full-time higher education lone parent students currently have an entitlement to apply for Higher Education Lone Parent Grant and Higher Education Lone Parent Childcare Grant.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to make other child care funding available through the Discretionary Funds a legal right for college and university students.

The Scottish Government published, on the 15 December, a consultation on student support for higher education. The consultation will consider the current support arrangements for higher education students and seek views on a number of proposals in connection with that.

The Scottish Government published on 10 December its Early Years and Early Intervention Framework which recognises that the cost and accessibility of child care is a major concern for parents in Scotland. At present, child care support for parents is a reserved matter, and is provided via the childcare vouchers and child tax credit schemes. In the framework, we set out a desire for a single, accessible and more progressive system of supporting the costs of child care.

This information is not held centrally.

The available information on the number of pupils of temporarily excluded from school in each Local Authority area for Substance misuse “ alcohol from 2003-04 - 2006-07 can be found in the answer to question S3W-18241 on 11 December 2008.

There were no pupils permanently excluded from school, also known as removed from the register, in mid Scotland and Fife for Substance misuse “ alcohol from 2003-04 - 2006-07:

Prior to 2003-04, although information was collected on the reason for exclusion, different categories were used and it is impossible to identify those excluded for Substance misuse “alcohol.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at .

At a strategic level, the Scottish Government published a discussion paper in June, setting out a wide ranging set of actions and proposals to tackle alcohol misuse amongst young people and the wider population.

Action includes supporting schools and local authorities in a number of ways. This includes the establishment of an expert steering group on substance misuse education in schools to produce advice, guidance and proposals aimed at helping schools and authorities to achieve the improvements sought through Curriculum for Excellence. The Scottish Government is developing new guidance, Included, Engaged and Involved: Part 2 which will focus on the prevention and management of exclusion from school.

Actions to tackle alcohol-related issues within schools in the mid Scotland and Fife parliamentary region is a matter for the particular individual local authorities concerned. Therefore, the information requested is not held centrally.

Between 2006-07 and 2007-08 there were increases in the number of emergency in-patient admissions of 3.4 per cent in Fife, 5.7 per cent in Dunfermline and West Fife and 6 per cent in Kirkcaldy and Levenmouth. There was a 1.4 per cent reduction in Glenrothes and North East Fife.

An eight per cent increase was seen in people aged 20 to 64 across Fife and for people aged 65 plus there was a 2.5 per cent increase. In the 0 to 19 age group there was a 6.7 per cent reduction.

In Fife in the last year, the main increase in the number of emergency in-patient admissions has been in the general medicine speciality.

Increases in emergency admissions are not new and NHS boards take account of this in planning their services. An admission to hospital may be the best response for the patient.

The Scottish Government has introduced a target to reduce the number of long-term condition admissions by 2010-11. To support this the Chief Medical Officer is developing a delivery plan that will draw together the many strands of work that impact on long term conditions. The Scottish Government will be discussing NHS boards'' delivery plans through the 2009-10 Local Delivery Planning process.

 

The information requested is given in the following table

Number and Percentage of Premature Babies^1,2,3 by Community Health Partnership (CHP) Area Year Ending 31 March

Ìý	2003		2004		2005		2006P		2007P
	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
Scotland4	3976	7.8	4348	8.2	4179	7.8	4328	8.2	4233	7.6
East Ayrshire	111	9.6	114	9.2	115	9.0	134	10.7	108	8.4
North Ayrshire	125	9.2	109	7.9	129	9.4	152	10.5	133	8.9
South Ayrshire	87	9.3	92	9.1	93	9.0	81	8.4	93	8.9
Scottish Borders	65	6.7	74	7.5	61	5.9	58	6.0	58	5.5
Dumfries and Galloway	107	8.1	95	7.2	104	7.5	122	8.8	135	9.3
Dunfermline and West Fife	104	7.0	108	7.1	117	7.1	114	7.0	126	7.6
Glenrothes and North East Fife	87	8.0	92	8.2	57	5.2	67	6.1	74	6.5
Kirkcaldy and Levenmouth	79	8.6	73	7.3	65	6.5	73	7.1	74	6.5
Clackmannanshire	48	10.1	45	9.2	38	7.7	37	7.0	34	6.3
Falkirk	118	7.7	130	8.1	111	6.5	124	7.1	116	6.6
Stirling	63	7.6	66	7.3	65	6.9	59	6.7	66	7.3
Aberdeen City	195	9.3	179	8.9	191	9.1	178	8.6	213	9.4
Aberdeenshire	213	9.2	198	8.4	191	8.1	215	8.8	225	8.3
Moray	76	8.5	57	7.0	58	6.6	66	7.5	44	4.9
East Dunbartonshire	66	7.0	98	10.0	52	5.7	71	7.9	56	6.3
East Glasgow	123	9.5	134	10.1	145	10.6	159	12.3	131	9.7
East Renfrewshire	60	6.7	71	7.9	63	6.8	83	9.7	44	5.3
Inverclyde	70	8.5	63	7.8	79	8.8	89	10.4	62	7.4
North Glasgow	124	10.0	132	10.6	133	10.2	96	7.8	92	7.7
Renfrewshire	146	8.4	175	9.6	161	8.8	157	8.5	136	7.4
South East Glasgow	101	8.1	101	7.7	100	7.4	115	8.9	112	8.2
South West Glasgow	103	7.9	113	8.6	119	8.7	93	6.7	126	8.7
West Dunbartonshire	83	8.5	90	9.5	98	9.9	90	9.1	96	9.4
West Glasgow	92	7.1	123	8.7	125	9.0	133	9.4	119	8.2
Argyll and Bute	46	6.4	59	8.0	43	6.1	73	10.6	47	7.9
Mid Highland	54	6.7	65	7.7	59	6.9	63	7.1	57	6.8
North Highland	15	4.9	19	5.7	20	6.0	23	7.2	20	5.8
South East Highland	62	7.3	65	7.2	81	8.7	74	7.8	81	8.2
North Lanarkshire	229	6.3	288	7.6	270	7.1	305	8.5	294	7.6
South Lanarkshire	192	6.3	244	7.9	251	7.9	229	7.4	217	6.5
Edinburgh	331	7.6	355	7.8	342	7.7	350	7.6	333	7.0
East Lothian	62	7.4	90	9.1	98	10.7	81	8.3	77	8.1
Midlothian	57	7.0	53	6.2	65	7.7	61	7.4	52	6.2
West Lothian	132	6.8	181	9.0	157	7.5	186	8.9	173	7.9
Orkney	5	3.0	23	14.5	16	8.8	9	4.9	15	7.4
Shetland	8	3.6	14	6.1	17	7.3	11	4.9	19	7.1
Angus	77	7.7	85	7.7	79	7.5	71	6.7	98	8.3
Dundee	106	7.2	143	9.2	96	7.0	114	8.1	125	7.8
Perth and Kinross	100	8.0	102	7.5	59	4.9	81	6.7	99	7.9
Western Isles	10	4.1	10	4.1	19	8.6	12	5.4	20	7.2

Source - SMR02, ISD Scotland.

^PProvisional.

Notes:

1. All babies (live and still, single and multiple) born at less than 37 weeks gestation.

2. Excludes home births and births at non-NHS hospitals.

3. Where four or more babies are involved in a pregnancy, birth details are recorded only for the first three babies delivered.

4. Includes births where CHP is unknown or outside Scotland.

The source of the data provided is ISD Scotland.

The average weekly cost of treating a patient in a high-dependency bed in financial year 2006-07 was £4,563.

Source: Scottish Health Service Costs, ISD Scotland.

International comparable data on research and development spend does not include expenditure relating to innovation; however figures on gross research and development expenditure (GERD) as a percentage of GDP are available. Estimating the required investment to reach the top quartile in 2009-10 would require forecasts of all OECD countries'' expenditure and GDP; however these forecasts are currently not available and therefore figures will be based on the most recent data, which are for 2005.

In 2005 Scottish GERD was £1,582 million and represented 1.61% of GDP. In order to reach the top quartile of OECD countries GERD spend would have to increase to over 2.48% of GDP which would be equivalent to a GERD spend of £2,447 million. This would require a 55% increase in GERD spend from the 2005 levels. GERD comprises investment by government, higher education and businesses, and Scotland is currently in the top quartile for higher education and government research and development expenditure and in the third quartile for business research and development expenditure.

Research and development is measured using internationally agreed standards defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This approach is heavily focused on investment in scientific and technological invention and does not capture the broader innovation activity that takes place in many sectors of the Scottish economy. For example, the top four sectors in terms of business expenditure on research and development (BERD) account for 78 per cent of BERD in Scotland; however these industries only contribute around 3 per cent to Scotland''s GVA. Therefore, it is important to note that this excludes investment relating to innovation.

Details of the capital projects currently being undertaken in the university and college sector are an operational matter for the Scottish Funding Council. I have asked the Scottish Funding Council to write to the member with this information.

The deferring of £20 million from the Scottish Funding Council''s capital allocation from 2009-10 to 2010-11 will have no impact on capital projects within the university and college sector. The Scottish Funding Council''s capital investment projects will continue without delay in 2009-10 and the deferment will assist in the flexible management of phasing and cash flows over academic years.