Chamber and committees

As stated in my previous response to S6W-35365, Instrumental Music Tuition is offered in all local authority areas as an optional extra complementing classroom music lessons which form part of the Expressive Arts curriculum for all children.

Since 2021-22 the Scottish Government has provided dedicated funding to local authorities to remove fees for instrumental music. A further £12 million will be provided to councils in 2025-26, bringing the total funding since 2021-22 up to £51.3 million.

The Scottish Government continues to engage closely with a range of partners, including local authorities, teacher unions and the GTCS, to implement our commitments on instrumental music tuition. We intend to discuss detailed options in relation to GTCS Registration with interested parties in the coming months.

GP practices in Glasgow, and elsewhere, must meet minimum standards for their practice premises which comply with their obligations under the Equality Act. This includes taking such steps as are reasonable to provide for ease of access to the practice premises and ease of movement within the practice premises for all users of the practice premises (including wheelchair users) and to provide adequate sound and visual systems for the hearing and visually impaired.

NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde is responsible for ensuring that its GP practices are meeting their contractual obligations.

The Scottish Government plans to lay secondary legislation in summer 2025 to add child contact services to the list of care services that the Care Inspectorate regulates. The Care Inspectorate will develop a Quality Framework for child contact services to help ensure the best outcomes for all children using these services, including those with additional needs.

The intention is that the Care Inspectorate will also be required to notify the Equality and Human Rights Commission where a child contact service provider has, or may have, failed to comply with their duties under the Equality Act 2010, and in particular any duty to make reasonable adjustments to premises to facilitate their use by disabled people.

The Children (Scotland) Act 2020 provides for a register of child welfare reporters, who can be appointed in child contact cases to obtain the child’s views or report on the child’s best interests. Once implemented, the register will help ensure reporters are skilled and trained in key areas, such as communicating with children and child development, including learning disabilities.

The Scottish Government will make further commencement regulations this year in relation to the 2020 Act, including provisions to enhance how the views of the child are heard. This was outlined to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on 11 March 2025: Letter from the Minister for Victims and Community Safety.

The Scottish Government has also consulted on a proposed Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill. Proposals include better identification of neurodivergence within the justice system and mandatory training. The Scottish Government has committed to publishing draft provisions for this Bill.

The Scottish Government recognises that both rurality and disability can create additional barriers to accessing the internet and is, across a number of programmes, addressing these barriers.

The Scottish Government’s Connecting Scotland programme, delivered in partnership with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), supports people in Scotland who are at risk of digital exclusion.

To date, over £389,000 in grant funding has been provided to support digital inclusion projects in Scotland. While being funded by the Scottish Government and supported by SCVO, these initiatives are delivered by local organisations - ensuring they are tailored to the needs of the communities being served.

The most recent data indicate that the majority of funded projects are providing support to disabled people and people affected by ill health.

The Scottish Government’s £600+ million Reaching 100% (R100) programme is providing resilient digital connectivity infrastructure across Scotland, which is required for digital inclusion projects to serve these communities.

To date, over 75,500 faster broadband connections have been delivered by the R100 programme. Over 70% of R100 contractual build is in rural parts of Scotland.

Taking into account the legacy Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme, over one million faster broadband connections have been delivered in Scotland in the last ten years, deploying over £1 billion of publicly driven investment.

The Scottish Government continues to fund Partners in Advocacy with £295,00 per year to deliver the My Rights, My Say, Children’s Service. This service supports children aged 12-15 to access advocacy and legal representation to enable them to be fully involved in decisions about their education and to exercise their rights under the Additional Support for Learning legislation.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all students with a disability, long term medical condition, or additional support need, can access further and higher education and are fully supported throughout their studies. It is for institutions to make decisions on their intake, but they are required under the Equality Act (Scotland) 2010 to provide equal opportunities and prevent discrimination.

No One Left Behind, has a key role to play in meeting our commitment to halving the Disability Employment Gap by 2038. Through a concerted focus on delivering person centred, place-based employability support, there has been significant progress in reaching and supporting disabled people towards and into work since the local delivery model was implemented in 2022. In the most recent quarter July to September 2024 32% of participants accessing the service reported a disability, which is the largest proportion in a single quarter to date, this is an increase of 6 percentage points from April to June 2024. We know there is more to be done to ensure our support remains accessible and meets the needs of disabled people who experience structural barriers to entering and sustaining employment. As set out in the Programme for Government 2024-25, we are introducing Specialist Employability Support for disabled people across Scotland by Summer 2025 underpinned by an uplift in funding of £5 million to Local Employability Partnerships to support delivery. We are building on past investment and engagement with employers across Scotland through an Apt Public Social Partnership to share learning and tools developed to support recruitment and retention of disabled people in employment.

We remain committed to continuously improving our services to ensure disabled people are effectively supported towards and into work, which includes working closely with disabled people and representative organisations to ensure that their voices and experiences help shape and guide policy.

The Scottish Government greatly values Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) across Scotland. We know that many disabled people currently face significant barriers. DPOs support thousands of disabled people across Scotland through programmes which build the confidence, connections and capacity of disabled people.

£5 million of our Equality and Human Rights fund supports Disabled People’s Organisations to tackle inequality and discrimination, furthering equality, and advancing the realisation of human rights in Scotland.

We are also investing an additional £2 million for the Disability Equality Plan and are working closely with DPOs on delivering essential support to Scotland’s disabled people.

The Scottish Government is in the early stages of considering afresh the purpose and potential benefits a unique learner number could bring including the role, if any, of existing reference numbers held on data sources.

It is not yet possible to say if legislation is required.