Current status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 5 August 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of disabled 16- to 24-year-olds in each year since 2010-11 were classified as not being in employment, education or training (NEET).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS) is the main source for Labour Market Indicators for detailed characteristics. The ONS state there are concerns with the quality of the APS estimates for smaller groups of the population. Therefore, it is not possible to produce robust estimates of the number of people aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training who also report having a disability from this source.
Scotland’s Census 2022 results show that, excluding full-time students, there were around 23,600 people aged 16 to 24 in Scotland who were unemployed or economically inactive and had a disability or health problem that limited their day-to-day activities a lot or a little. This was 28% of all disabled 16 to 24 year olds.
The Annual Participation Measure is published by Skills Development Scotland. This publication began in 2016 and covers those aged 16 to 19 years old. The proportion of disabled people aged 16 to 19 who were not participating in education, employment or training is included in Table 1.4a: https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/media/appbneac/2025-annual-participation-measure-supplementary-tables.xlsx.