The St Mary’s Music School (Aided Places) (Scotland) Regulations 2015

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations consolidate, with amendments, the St Mary’s Music School (Aided Places) (Scotland) Regulations 2001 (“the 2001 Regulations”) which, with the Regulations amending them, are revoked by regulation 15 and Schedule 3. The Regulations come into force on 1st August 2015.

The Regulations provide for the payment of allowances to St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh (“the school”) to reimburse it for its expenditure in respect of fees and charges remitted and grants made in operating the aided pupil scheme described in Schedule 1. In addition to minor drafting changes, changes of substance have been made to the 2001 Regulations. The principal changes of substance are described below.

Regulations 1 and 2 make general provision for citation, commencement and interpretation. Regulation 2 includes definitions of “child”, “parent”, “partner” and “applicant” (to encompass both a parent and a parent’s partner) to ensure that the Regulations cover the children of civil partnerships and same sex marriages as well as requiring that the income of cohabitees should be factored into the means testing under the Scheme from 1st August 2016.

Regulations 3 to 14 deal with reimbursement claims, conditions of payment of allowances and requirements as to the supply of information, fees and other miscellaneous matters.

Part 1 of Schedule 1 provides for eligibility for remission of fees, including conditions as to residence (paragraph 2); age (paragraph 3); education (paragraph 4); income (paragraph 5); and the provision of information (paragraph 6).

Part 2 deals with the remission of fees. The extent of remission is determined by reference to relevant income. The deduction for each dependent child and relative which is made from relevant income has been increased from £1,865 to £1,908 (paragraph 9). The level of income at or below which fees are to be wholly remitted is increased from £12,436 to £12,722 for boarders, with corresponding increases in the income scales to determine the parental contribution to fees (paragraph 12). For day pupils the relevant income is increased from £15,668 to £16,028 (paragraph 13).

Part 3 deals with the incidental expenses of pupils holding aided places and provides for the remission of charges for meals (paragraph 15) and certain field study courses (paragraph 23), and for making grants in respect of expenditure on clothing (paragraph 16) and school travel (paragraphs 17 to 21). The following are changes of substance in Part 3—

(a) school travel grant is paid in full where relevant income does not exceed £14,821 (formerly £14,488) and scaled down where relevant income exceeds that figure; and

(b) the limit of relevant income for clothing grant in the first year is raised from £16,237 to £16,610, with corresponding increases in the maximum amount of grant payable where relevant income is below that figure, varying from £62 to £253 (formerly £61 to £247); and in subsequent years from £15,559 to £15,917, with maximum grants increasing to £52 and £98 (formerly £51 and £96).

Part 4 deals with the computation of income for the purposes of the Scheme and contains a broader definition of “maintenance payments” to reflect the extension of the Scheme to cover children of same sex marriages and civil partnerships as well as the inclusion of the income of cohabitees.

Schedule 2 provides for additional information to be supplied by the school to a parent or partner on written application.