Question reference: S6W-26042
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 7 March 2024
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Current status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 19 March 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the funding to remove fees from secondary school music tuition, which was announced in 2021, whether it engages with local authorities on the level of music tuition that they provide, and, if so, whether it is aware of any reduction in provision since 2021.
Answer
The Scottish Government continues to work closely with Local Authority Heads of Instrumental Music, COSLA and the Improvement Service to support and monitor the ongoing delivery of free instrumental music tuition.
The annual Instrumental Music Services: Results from the IMS Survey 2023 (improvementservice.org.uk) undertaken by the Improvement Service and most recently published in December 2023 confirmed that 61,715 pupils participated in instrumental music lessons in academic year 2022-23, the highest number since the annual survey began 11 years ago.