The Education (Assisted Places) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 1997

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Education (Assisted Places) (Scotland) Regulations 1995, principally to amend the definition of the “parents” of an assisted pupil and to uprate the qualifying income levels for the remission of fees and charges and the making of grants under the assisted places scheme.

The details of these amendments are as follows:–

(a) the definition of “parents” of an assisted pupil is amended broadly to reflect changes introduced by the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, in particular to introduce the concept of a parent “with whom the child normally lives” in place of a parent “with actual custody of the child” (regulation 2(a));

(b) the deduction made from relevant income for dependent children and relatives has been increased from £1,200 to £1,230 (regulation 2(b));

(c) the level of income at or below which fees are to be wholly remitted is increased from £9,873 to £10,135 with corresponding increases in the extent of remission where the relevant income exceeds that figure (regulation 2(c) and (i));

(d) the qualifying income levels for school travel grants and clothing grants are increased (regulation 2(d), (e)(ii) and (f)); and

(e) school clothing grants are increased by amounts varying from £1 to £5 (regulation 2(f)).

In addition regulation 18 of the 1995 Regulations has been amended to require remission of charges for meals where the parents of an assisted pupil are in receipt of income-based jobseeker’s allowance (regulation 2(g)). The requirement for participating schools to publish annually details of the availability of places under the scheme has also been removed (regulation 2(h)). A minor drafting correction has been made to regulations 15 and 16 regarding the specification of distance in kilometres relevant to school travel grant (regulation 2(d)(i) and (e)(i)).