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The Scottish Government recognises the value of the expressive arts and is committed to the actions detailed in the education and the arts, culture and creativity action plan, launched in September 2010. Expressive arts is one of eight curriculum areas within Curriculum for Excellence – these areas underpin all learning and teaching, with the expressive arts experiences and outcomes enabling all young people to develop skills and abilities in the areas of art and design, dance, drama as well as music. That said, any decisions on the closure of music departments in educational establishments are a matter for local authorities.

Additionally, the Scottish Government continues to fund the Youth Music Initiative (YMI), which is delivered through Creative Scotland, in partnership with local authorities, on behalf of the government. YMI supports more than 300 projects each year, covering all musical genres, age groups and teaching methods. We have invested £67.5 million in high quality music programmes via the YMI and we have committed a further £10 million for 2011-12.

The college sector has agreed to maintain in 2011-12 the same overall level of core activity as in the previous year. Decisions about the provision of specific courses are made by colleges as independent institutions.

The college sector has agreed to maintain in 2011-12 the same overall level of core activity as in the previous year.

The reduction in the teaching and capital budgets of colleges is a direct result of the decision of the UK Government to reduce Scotland’s block grant by no less than £1.3 billion.

Although it is unlikely that we will make any progress with the UK on this issue, we will continue to take any opportunity to raise it with the UK Government.

Colleges are independent employers of staff, and this information is not held centrally. The majority of colleges have given a standard assurance that they would seek to avoid compulsory redundancies if at all possible, with seven going further and giving an absolute guarantee.

It is estimated from the latest Annual Population Survey (October 2009 to September 2010) that there are 73,000 individuals aged 16 to 24 unemployed in Scotland.

The Annual Population Survey is the official source for information on unemployment by age. Unemployment measured from this source follows the internationally agreed definition of unemployment as recommended by the International Labour Organisation, an agency of the United Nations. Estimates are rounded to the nearest thousand.

The information requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government does not produce forecasts of the predicted number of young people entering further or higher education. The latest data on the number of young people entering further and higher education is for the academic year 2009-10. Figures on the number of students in academic year 2010-11 will become available in January 2012.

The experiences and outcomes under Curriculum for Excellence contain a section on Physical Wellbeing which includes, “I know and can demonstrate how to keep myself and others safe and how to respond in a range of emergency situations.” It is for schools and local authorities to decide how to take forward this learning.

The relevant UK Government department, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, have made clear that they have no plans to review or make changes to the 1999 order and no meetings on this subject are planned.