Any application for public support from our enterprise agencies is subject to robust appraisal and appropriate due diligence.

Scottish building regulations already set requirements for venues, for new buildings and new building work, that are intended to assist people with visual impairment to safely navigate a building.

However, building regulations are not applied retrospectively to existing buildings.

The Scottish Government expects building owners and managers to be familiar with their duties under equalities legislation and where necessary make reasonable adjustments following the relevant codes of practice published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Our Culture Strategy sets out our ambition for everyone across Scotland to lead a cultural life of their choice, ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to enjoy and contribute to culture, the creative industries and the arts.

Creative Scotland’s regularly funded organisations are contractually obliged to develop and implement Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plans. This covers all aspects of the organisation across governance, staffing, programme, audiences and marketing. Creative Scotland are also involved in “All In”, a UK wide initiative from Arts Council England, developing a new UK arts access scheme for D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent people, representing the Scottish perspective.

VisitScotland’s website already provides information on the benefits for event organisers of engaging further in accessible tourism and how events can create their own access guides. In addition, amongst other resources, VisitScotland’s successful inclusive tourism project sets out the existing non-statutory Accessibility Guidance for Events produced by VisitScotland.

Regards to training of venue and security staff in relation to visual impairment, the Scottish Government expects all relevant organisations to comply with the requirement of the Equality Act 2010 and relevant codes of practice published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and address their broader duties under UK health and safety and equalities legislation including the requirement for service providers to make reasonable adjustments in circumstances where a disabled person is placed at a substantial disadvantage compared with non-disabled people. The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an independent, and reserved public body, and therefore cannot be directed by Scottish Ministers.

Local authorities are responsible for communicating any Glow service changes to their staff. Education Scotland made local authorities aware of this global change announced by Microsoft at the Glow Key Contacts meeting in August 2023, which is the primary conduit between Education Scotland and local authorities for information sharing and engagement regarding Glow. Changes have been discussed at a number of subsequent meetings and Education Scotland issued formal email communications on this topic to this group in October 2023, January 2024, March 2024, and June 2024, as well as publishing detailed guidance on Glow Connect. Education Scotland has also undertaken a survey to assess impact.

Education Scotland and the Scottish Government have been in regular and direct contact with Microsoft officials since the global changes were announced by Microsoft to their services in August 2023. That engagement has primarily focused on wider changes to tenancy storage limits under the A1 Licence which is the subject of our existing contract with Microsoft. It is as a result of this direct and prolonged engagement throughout the past year that Microsoft have agreed that the Glow Microsoft tenancy will not be subject to this restriction to storage limits during our contract term.

The Scottish Government is committed to promoting the rights of disabled people and ensuring that they benefit from all that we are doing to improve people’s lives. This includes ensuring that all serving Armed Forces personnel and veterans living in Scotland, as well as their families, are able to: access the best possible care and support; enjoy their rights on an equal basis to others; and participate fully and lead their own lives.

Those involved in ticket sales, such as venues or ticket providers, should be familiar with and address their broader duties under UK health and safety and equalities legislation including, for the latter, the requirement for service providers to make reasonable adjustments in circumstances where a disabled person is placed at a substantial disadvantage compared with non-disabled people.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has produced a Code of Practice that gives more information on the application of reasonable adjustments. The Scottish Government expects all relevant organisations to comply with the requirement of the Equality Act 2010 and relevant codes of practice published by the EHRC.EHRC is an independent, and reserved public body, and therefore cannot be directed by Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government believes everyone should have the right to access a cultural life of their choice, and are committed to advancing disability equality and tackling systemic barriers that affect the daily lives of disabled people. We are working with Disabled People’s Organisations, Glasgow Disability Alliance, Inclusion Scotland, and Disability Equality Scotland to ensure disabled people’s experiences are heard.

Facilitating access and participation to culture, is central to the artistic purpose of all Scottish Government funded culture bodies and they all share a desire to communicate with as large and diverse an audience as possible. The Equality Act 2010 requires service providers to make reasonable adjustments where a disabled person in placed at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with non-disabled people. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has produced a Code of Practice that gives more information on the application of reasonable adjustment. However the Equality and Human Rights Commission is an independent, and reserved public body, and therefore cannot be directed by Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government-funded National Performing Companies all offer relaxed and adapted performances, this includes Audio Described and Captioned performances across Scotland, and in some cases pre-show Touch Tours for visually impaired audiences.

Microsoft announced global changes to their licences in August 2023. At that time, Education Scotland took lead responsibility for communicating this change to all local authorities via their nominated Glow Key Contact, given that the statutory responsibility for the delivery of education rests with local authorities in Scotland. Education Scotland has undertaken a survey and engaged directly with each local authority throughout the past year as appropriate. All local authorities have confirmed their position, and all have either already implemented their plans for mitigations or are in the process of doing so.

The free offer of offline desktop applications for Office 365 was intended for personal and home use. The vast majority of local authorities have not relied on this for school-based devices. In all cases, local authorities have in place, or are putting in place, alternative arrangements which afford access to the desktop version of Office products in schools and on council-issued devices.

The Residential Rehabilitation Development Working Group’s 2020 report noted that there was some evidence that rehabilitation programmes of 12 weeks had led to more successful treatment outcomes. However, the recommendations were also clear that further research was required on the length of rehabilitation programmes and their correlation to outcomes across Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s current position is that all placements for residential rehabilitation should be assessed on an individual needs basis, and it is ultimately for professionals and clinicians to make the decision locally as to whether a shorter or longer programme is effective for the individuals involved.

As part of our work on developing the residential rehabilitation evidence base, the Scottish Government published a literature review in 2022 which looked at existing evidence and research gaps. As noted in Page 14, residential rehabilitation encompasses a diverse range of treatment models, and there is no one programme which has proven to produce routinely better outcomes for individuals.

The Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland have worked collaboratively with stakeholders to establish a core minimum dataset to support the monitoring and evaluation of residential rehabilitation. It is expected that the first extracts will be published in December, where a greater level of insight and data will be available, including average treatment length and associated outcomes, as the dataset continues to develop and mature.