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The Scottish Government recognises the role played by the Commissioner and their role as the guardian of children’s rights in Scotland. The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body sets the terms of the Commissioner’s appointment, including the allocation of resources. The Commissioner is required to report to Parliament each year on the exercise of his functions.

With regard to the creation of a Commissioner for Older People, the Scottish Government’s position has not changed and is set out in response to S5W-32242 on 22 Oc tober 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

As detailed in the Scottish Government’s response to questions S5W-34614 and S5W-34612 on 1 February 2021 we have provided funding for around 18,000 new and enhanced opportunities to support young people in 2020-21.

We have previously stated, in response to question S5W-33395 on 2 December 2020 that given the uncertainty around the labour market, with the extension of the furlough scheme and the impact of Brexit, we are not setting targets for the Young Person's Guarantee.

The Guarantee is not a standalone programme. We are providing £70 million in 2021/22 to create more opportunities for young people, building on our significant existing investment in Education, Employability and Skills infrastructure. We are in the process of developing a measurement and evaluation framework to understand how the Guarantee is delivering a range of different opportunities to support young people, as set out in response to question S5W-34872 on 1 February 2021 .

As part of this process, we recently published the first Local Authority Labour Market Dashboard and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) published the first monthly Participation Snapshot for 16 and 17 year olds. The Snapshot provides more timely data on the participation rate of young people across Scotland and will provide information on the activities young people are participating in.

This information along with the annual Participation Measure produced by SDS and planned evaluative activity will help us to monitor the number of opportunities as well measure and target opportunities and support for young people.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The guarantee is compliant with EU state aid rules and did not require EU approval.

The short-life Ministerial Working Group will form part of our approach to establishing a Centre of Expertise in Equality and Human Rights to work across the Economy portfolio within Scottish Government. This involves ensuring that it advances upon our wider equality and human rights mainstreaming strategy to inform the development of approaches across the Scottish Government.

Once we have established the Centre of Expertise, then the working group would form part of its initial governance.

Expressive arts (which includes music education) is one of the eight core areas of Curriculum for Excellence that all children and young people have access to. Provision of the curriculum, as well as the way instrumental music tuition is provided, is for local authorities to determine, depending on local circumstances, priorities and traditions.

Curriculum for Excellence places learners at the heart of education and for some young people, learning a specific instrument will be an important part of their personalised learner experience.

The Scottish Government remains committed to working with others to ensure instrumental music tuition remains accessible.

(a) The latest Scottish Government Growth Sectors Statistics for the Creative Industries, published in December 2020, show that the music sector contributed £19.8 million to the Scottish economy in 2019 (Source: Growth sector statistics - gov.scot ( www.gov.scot ).

UK Music estimates that the number of full-time equivalent jobs sustained by music tourism in Scotland was 2019 was 4,757. It estimates that in 2019 1.3 million tourists attended live events across Scotland (up from 1.1 million in 2017) and the total amount of spend generated by music tourists in Scotland in 2019 was £453 million (Source: Music by Numbers 2020 - UK Music ).

(b) Scotland’s music sector has a significant cultural impact domestically and internationally. Scottish musicians excel in every genre, including classical, contemporary classical (new), folk, trad, rock, pop, indie, electronic, hip hop, and jazz, which all combine to create a vibrant music scene that is recognised across the globe. Our music sector supports our vibrant oral and music cultures and traditions, including those relating to Gaelic and Scots, as well as traditional arts, and contributes to Scotland as a creative and cultural nation through festivals, live music and performances as well as providing music networks across communities.

(i) and (ii) The Scottish Government supports the music sector and Scotland-based recording artists primarily through Creative Scotland, which awards funding through its Regularly Funded Organisations (RFO) programme and its Open Project Funding (OPF). In 2018-21 it awarded £11.45m of RFO funding to music organisations, including the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA). In 2019-21 it awarded £2,408,805 of OPF to 121 projects, ranging from funding for touring, for individual artists and support for sector organisations.

Creative Scotland also provides a range of other support to the music sector and recording artists through initiatives which can support artists throughout their careers such as the development of new work by composers, through initiatives such as Create: Inclusion, its international showcasing at Womex, the world music expo; the annual Classical: NEXT event in Rotterdam,Showcase Scotland; and the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Awards, funded through the SMIA.

Creative Scotland’s support for the music sector and recording artists is set out in its annual report. (Source: Creative Scotland annual report 2019-20 ).

The Scottish Government directly funds and promotes the National performing companies the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

We are currently developing our approach to establishing a Centre of Expertise in Equality and Human Rights to work across the Economy portfolio within Scottish Government. This involves ensuring that it advances upon our wider equality and human rights mainstreaming strategy to inform the development of approaches across the Scottish Government.

As promised within our Programme for Government, this mainstreaming strategy will be underpinned by a comprehensive approach to improving data collation and analysis, and that harnesses the voices of those impacted to shape our approach and policies.

We are driving forward an ambitious and progressive agenda to ensure women’s equality rights are embedded within our economic recovery planning, and in all we do, to mitigate against the disproportionate impacts COVID-19 has and will continue to have on different groups, including women, women from minority ethnic communities, older women and disabled women.

We will develop an equality and human rights mainstreaming strategy, as promised in our Programme for Government, that is underpinned by a comprehensive approach to improving data collation and analysis, and that harnesses the voices of those impacted to shape our approach and policies. As part of our wider mainstreaming strategy and to inform the development of approaches across the Scottish Government, we will establish an Economy Centre of Expertise on Equality and Human Rights to drive progress in this area.

Furthermore, improving women’s position in the labour market remains a priority for the Scottish Government and a key part of delivering inclusive economic growth. We committed in our Programme for Government to review the actions within our Gender Pay Gap Action Plan in light of the pandemic, ensuring they continued to support women through the economic recovery. We have taken this work forward and published our Gender Pay Gap Action Plan Annual Report on the 8 March 2021, setting out our progress to date and new actions we will take.

As part of this work, we have commissioned research to explore and evaluate international mechanisms that revalue (or aim to revalue) women’s work. The research will consider the impact of COVID-19, and findings will inform our work to improve women’s position in the labour market going forwards.

We recognise the crucial role both Rape Crisis Scotland and Women’s Aid Scotland centres play in providing specialist support for women and children at risk of gender-based violence.

At present, over £12 million this year is being invested into frontline services and across the sector to help tackle violence against women and girls. We have also opened our new Delivering Equally Safe Fund, which will provide up to £13 million of funding every year between October 2021 to September 2024.

Furthermore, at the start of the Covid pandemic, all organisations and projects currently being funded under the existing Equally Safe Fund were granted an extension on their funding until September 2021. Last year we also allocated an additional £5.75 million to frontline support services to ensure that women and children can safely access the support they need.

Women having access to frontline services dealing with violence and domestic abuse is vital. This is why we have also committed to review the funding and commissioning of frontline specialist services to explore how we can ensure both quality and sustainability of services. Councils also have a responsibility to recognise the importance of such services and to fund them accordingly.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The three specialist centres, including Glasgow, are the responsibility of local NHS Boards and are funded through their existing NHS budgets.