Chamber and committees

<>There are nearly 1,800 children and young people engaging regularly with the three established Sistema Scotland Big Noise centres. Big Noise Raploch works with almost 500 children and young people on a regular basis, Big Noise Govanhill works with almost 800 children and Big Noise Torry works with almost 500 children and young people. In addition to the Big Noise orchestras attended by children, Sistema Scotland run Baby Noise and Adult Noise programmes which enable the Sistema Scotland programme to reach across the communities where they are based.

Information on local authority instrumental music tuition charges can be found at the attached links:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/curriculum/InstrumentalMusic/ImplementationGroup

In 2016-17 the Scottish Government is providing grant funding of £3.96 million to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) based in Glasgow and £1.99 million to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra based in Edinburgh, two of the five Scottish Government-funded national performing companies who both perform regularly throughout Scotland, the UK and internationally. In addition, the orchestras have received capital funding allocations, most notably £9.2 million for the new RSNO home at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall which opened in 2015.

The Scottish Government also support Sistema Scotland which has three Big Noise centres in Raploch, Govanhill and Torry and our recently announced £2.5 million four-year funding package will enable the youth orchestra programme to sustain and build on its work to enhance the health, wellbeing and prospects of young people in the communities of Stirling, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

In addition the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland (NYOS) both receive Regular Funding from Creative Scotland who also support various orchestral activities through project funding including:-

Support for recording projects – an award to the RSNO and NYOS to record the symphonic music of Sally Beamish

Support for new commissions – an award to voluntary group Peebles Orchestra for commission from Esther Swift

Support for sector development and research – an award to Association of British Orchestras for research into youth ensembles

Based on the methods of Venezuela’s ‘El Sistema’ movement, Sistema Scotland develop orchestra centres which are known in the community as ‘Big Noise’. The Scottish Government is supporting Sistema Scotland over the next four years with £2.5million investment to extend the programme's reach at the Big Noise Centres at Raploch, Govanhill and Torry. The four-year funding package will enable the youth orchestra programme to sustain and build on its work to enhance the health, wellbeing and prospects of young people in parts of Stirling, Glasgow and Aberdeen. The funding breakdown of the Scottish Government's support over the next four years is as follows though a breakdown for each centre is not available:-

2016-17	£415,000
2017-18	£455,000
2018-19	£780,000
2019-20	£850,000

The criteria to qualify for free school meals is provided for in section 53 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980. A summary of the criteria can be accessed from the Scottish Government website at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/HLivi/schoolmeals/FreeSchoolMeals.

A number of changes have been made to the criteria in recent years:

One of the criteria to qualify for free school meals is the receipt of child tax credit (and not working tax credit) where the award of child tax credit is based on an income not exceeding an amount specified by Regulations under the Tax Credits Act 2002. The Tax Credits Up-rating Regulations 2015 increased the first income threshold for the receipt of child tax credit from £16,010 to £16,105 on 6 April 2015. The increase in this threshold resulted in a change to the qualifying criteria for a free school meal.

Prior to that, on 5 January 2015, amendments to section 53 of the Education Act (Scotland) 1980 made via the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 commenced giving education authorities new powers to provide school meals free of charge to pupils who satisfy such conditions as the authority thinks fit. On the same day, universal free school meals were introduced to children in primary 1 to 3. This policy is being delivered in partnership with local government.

Young children registered for their early learning and childcare entitlement are also entitled to a free school meal, in the middle of the day, under the same criteria as those children from primary 4 onwards. This criteria, was extended on 1 August 2015 through the Education (School Lunches) (Scotland) Regulations 2015 in early learning and childcare only, to include children who are or have been at any point since their second birthday looked after by the local authority or subject to a kinship care or guardianship order, as well as those with a parent in receipt of incapacity or severe disablement allowance or state pension credit. This was to bring the free school meal criteria in line with the eligibility criteria for a funded 2 year old early learning and childcare place. The extended free school meal criteria applies to all two, three and four year olds who meet the criteria in funded early learning and childcare.

The Scottish Government is continuing to consider how eligibility to free school meals will be determined in the context of the UK Government’s programme for welfare reform. As an interim arrangement, the Education (School Lunches) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2013 prescribed the receipt of universal credit as an eligibility criterion for free school meals to ensure that no child will lose their entitlement during the early stages of the universal credit roll-out. The Scottish Government is currently working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to consider the eligibility criteria for free school meals under universal credit in the future.

The Scottish Government has also committed to extending universal free school meals to all two, three and four year olds in funded early learning and childcare as part of the expansion to 1140 hours of early learning and childcare by the end of this parliament.

The Scottish Government has regular discussions on a wide range of subjects with Creative Scotland but has not recently discussed specific support for contemporary musicians. Occasionally musicians write to the Scottish Government about opportunities for support for them and they are directed to Creative Scotland's advice service.

The Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 requires Scottish Ministers, when determining whether a property factor is fit and proper, to consider whether the factor, or any relevant person connected with the factor:

has been convicted of any offence involving fraud or other dishonesty, violence or drugs;

has any court or tribunal judgments against them under the Equalities Act 2010, the Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 and the Employment Equality (Religion Or Belief) Regulations 2003;

has contravened any provision of the law relating to tenements, property or debt.

As the Act does not give Scottish Ministers specific investigatory powers their ability to monitor the effectiveness of the fit and proper test is limited. Within those limits, Scottish Ministers consider any relevant information provided by the property factor or a third party and will take steps to review an entry on the register if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that information provided is, or has become, inaccurate. They may also require the person to provide a criminal conviction certificate as evidence to support the information provided in the application.

<>The Scottish Government does not intend to introduce a fee for homeowners to apply to the Homeowner Housing Panel.

<>The Homeowner Housing Panel (HoHP) is an independent tribunal established under the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 (the Act) to deal with disputes between homeowners and property factors. The Act came into force on 1 October 2012.

Information on the number of property factor enforcement orders issued each year by the HoHP is included in its annual report which is laid before the Scottish Parliament. The reports are published at: https://hohp.scotland.gov.uk/who-we-are-hohp/annual-reports.