Chamber and committees

That is a really important question. There is certainly no intention to do that, and if there was any risk at all of doing that, I would be very concerned, so let me commit to take that away, review the evidence that has been given and consider how we avoid any such risk of standardising out dialects, because those are extremely rich dialects, with a wealth of literature, heritage and culture. I would be concerned if there was any serious risk in that regard.

I will take those questions in turn, and I will ask Claire Cullen or Douglas Ansdell to come in on the standards. It is a slightly different approach to the one that was taken for Gaelic. When was the first Gaelic-medium school opened—was it 1984?

Good memory, eh? Therefore, it has been 30 or 40 years in the making, which gives you an indication of how long that work has been going on. There is a different approach to Scots. I ask one of my officials to come in on outlining the different standards.

Obviously, it has to be integrated and there must be local choice. This answer will not satisfy you, but there must be a local element. You are not asking me about Gaelic so I will not give an answer about Gaelic, but I am going to say that we should look at the principle. What the school week looks like in a high school in Glasgow or in Cumbernauld will be very different from what it might look like in the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway. The whole point of the bill is localised distinctiveness.

Some of the work that Douglas Ansdell spoke about is already integrated in the school week. We are not proposing, either with Gaelic or with Scots, that there should be an obligation for every single student in every school to study that throughout their primary school years, but we would like them to be exposed to that. Where that is happening already, or where a school might want to adopt that, standards would be set and there would be support.

On the question about integration, that will look really different from Dumfries and Galloway through to Shetland, not least because, as you suggested, we do not want to standardise what should be distinctive.

I am not sure whether either of the officials would like to say more about how they arrived at the cost figures, but that work is already going on with local authorities. The financial memorandum is an estimate based on the work that is already happening, on the understanding that there might be a need to do a little more work or to pivot to other work.

It is a local choice. A local education committee might want to have more Scots teaching in its schools. That will be an internal conversation for the local authority, because local authorities have the freedom to make decisions. Where funding is already available, we want them to be able to access that. A lot of the work that happens with Scots is done by organisations working closely with schools. I would be really uneasy about making a blanket national statement to answer a question about integrating Scots within the school week, when the whole point is that local schools should reflect local communities.

I think that the bill already goes beyond education with the areas of linguistic significance. Accepting that it is an education bill—after all, there is a lot about education in it; you can come in if you want to correct me on that—I think that it goes beyond education, if you care a lot about communities. I would be nervous about its going too far into, say, infrastructure, because it is the responsibility of the rest of the Government to have due regard to Gaelic—under, for example, the Scottish Government’s language plans—in all of its other policy making.

There is also the issue of island proofing. I am not saying that that is entirely about Gaelic, but it is about communities.

Mòran taing, agus madainn mhath a bhuill.

Tha e na urram mòr dhomh gun deach mo chur an dreuchd mar Rùnaire a’ Chaibineit airson na h-Eaconamaidh agus Gàidhlig, a thuilleadh air na dleastanasan eile a th’ agam. Tha uallach glè shònraichte aig Riaghaltas na h-Alba gus Gàidhlig is Albais a ghleidheadh agus gus ath-bheothachadh a thoirt orra.

’S iad sin, cho math ri Beurla, na cànanan dùthchasach aig Alba a tha fhathast air am bruidhinn san latha an-diugh. Le bhith a’ cur taic riutha, tha sinn a’ cur taic ri snàithlean bunaiteach de chultar is aithne-dùthcha na h-Alba.

Bidh iomairtean a thaobh poileasaidhean foghlaim, sòisealta agus eaconamach agus eile a’ cur taic ris na coimhearsnachdan sa bheil iad gam bruidhinn agus ri neartachadh nan coimhearsnachdan sin. Cuideachd, chaidh a dhearbhadh iomadach uair gum bi leithid a dh’iomairtean a’ cur ri brìgh is beairteas comann-sòisealta na h-Alba san fharsaingeachd: eadar foghlam, cultar agus an eaconamaidh. Le bhith a’ cur fàilte air agus a’ toirt taic do luchd-labhairt mhion-chànanan ann an Alba, tha sinn cuideachd a’ brosnachadh ioma-chànanas agus daoine a bhith a’ sealltainn spèis do chàch a chèile.

San dà ghinealach a dh’fhalbh, chunnacas adhartas nach beag airson na Gàidhlig an lùib foghlam, craoladh, leasachaidhean coimhearsnachd agus planadh cànain airson bhuidhnean. ’S e roinn mhion-chànain shoirbheachail a th’ ann am foghlam tro mheadhan na Gàidhlig, taobh a-staigh siostam foghlaim na h-Alba, a bhios a’ toirt oideachadh do sgoilearan bho air feadh a’ chomainn-shòisealta.

Tha foghlam Gàidhlig airson luchd-ionnsachaidh a’ toirt cothrom do sgoilearan ann am foghlam tro mheadhan na Beurla gus eòlas a chur air pàirt bunaiteach de chultar na h-Alba. Tha ionadan leithid Sabhal Mòr Ostaig san Eilean Sgitheanach, Cnoc Soilleir ann an Uibhist a Deas agus Ionad Chaluim Chille Ìle a’ cur a’ chànain air adhart agus a’ cuideachadh le bhith a’ neartachadh na h-eaconamaidh ann an coimhearsnachdan eileanach.

Mar thoradh air Achd na Gàidhlig (Alba) 2005, agus air obair Bòrd na Gàidhlig a chaidh a stèidheachadh fon achd, tha planadh airson na Gàidhlig a-nis mar phàirt cudromach de phoileasaidhean poblach. Tha Bòrd na Gàidhlig air grunn phlanaichean nàiseanta na Gàidhlig ullachadh le cinn-uidhe choitcheann a bhios a’ toirt stiùir dhan roinn phoblaich san obair aca gus an cànan a thoirt air adhart.

Tha grunn bhliadhnaichean air a bhith ann bho chaidh reachdas aontachadh gus taic a thoirt dhan Ghàidhlig agus tha cothrom againn a-nis beachdachadh air a’ bhuaidh a tha air a bhith aig Achd na Gàidhlig (Alba) 2005 agus Achd an Fhoghlaim (Alba) 2016 air cùisean.

Tha na cumhachan a thathar a’ moladh sa bhile seo a’ togail air reachdas is gnìomhan a th’ ann mar-thà, agus e na amas gum bi taghadh ùr de chumhachdan nas èifeachdaiche ann a chuidicheas le bhith a’ dèanamh adhartas, mar a tha a dhìth, dhan Ghàidhlig.

Gu ruige seo, chan eil Albais air taic oifigeil fhaighinn tro reachdas. Ri linn mar a tha taic dhan chànan a’ dol am meud, agus ar taic fhèin dhan chànan, tha an t-àm ann beachdachadh air nas urrainn dhuinn a dhèanamh a thaobh sin. Tha buidhnean leithid Ionad na h-Albais agus Faclairean na h-Albais air obair ionmholta a dhèanamh às leth a’ chànain.

Tha iad air cur ris na th’ ann de dh’Albais a gheibhear ann am foghlam, cultar, agus craoladh. Tha Bile nan Cànan Albannach a’ togail air an obair sin leis an amas gum bi Albais nas follaisiche ann am beatha phoblach muinntir na h-Alba.

Tha na dùbhlain a tha ron Ghàidhlig agus ro Albais ro thòrr de chànanan na cruinne. San t-saoghal san latha an-diugh, tha mu eadar leth-cheud is naochad sa cheud den t-seachd mìle cànan a tha ga bruidhinn ann an cunnart a dhol a-mach à bith ro dheireadh na linne seo.

Tha an iomairt gus Gàidhlig is Albais a ghleidheadh is a chur air adhart mar phàirt de na h-oidhirpean air feadh an t-saoghail gus cànanan a chumail beò agus tha dleastanas sònraichte oirnn ann an Alba agus aig Riaghaltas na h-Alba a thaobh na h-iomairt sin.

Mòran taing, agus bidh mi a-nis a’ bruidhinn sa Bheurla airson na comataidh.

Following is the simultaneous interpretation:

Good morning, members. It is a huge privilege to have been appointed as Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic, in addition to my other responsibilities.

The preservation and revival of Gaelic and Scots are the unique responsibility of the Scottish Government. Alongside English, they represent the historical native languages that are still spoken in the country today, and to support them is to support an essential part of Scottish culture and national identity.

Initiatives on behalf of the languages—in education, social and economic policy—strengthen and contribute to the development of the communities in which they are spoken. Those initiatives have repeatedly been proven to be to the general enrichment of Scottish society, whether that is in education, culture or the economy. Alongside welcoming and supporting linguistic minorities within Scotland, we also advance the wider cause of multilingualism and tolerance.

In the past two generations, there has been major progress for Gaelic across the fields of education, broadcasting, community development and institutional language planning. Gaelic-medium education is a successful minority sector in the Scottish school system and educates pupils from across society.

Gaelic-learner education enables pupils in English-medium schooling to encounter an essential part of Scotland’s culture. Centres such as Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on Skye, Cnoc Soilleir on South Uist and the Islay Gaelic Centre—Ionad Chaluim Chille Ìle—advance the language while also contributing to the economic regeneration of rural island communities.

The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 and its work to create Bòrd na Gàidhlig made Gaelic language planning a key aspect of public policy. Successive national Gaelic plans, produced by Bòrd na Gàidhlig, have provided common goals towards which Scotland’s public sector can work to advance the language.

It has been a number of years since legislation was passed in support of Gaelic, and now we have an opportunity to reflect on the impact, in practice, of the 2005 act and the Education (Scotland) Act 2016. The proposed provisions of the Scottish Languages Bill build on measures that are already in place, with the aim of making the new package of measures more effective for the progress that is needed for Gaelic.

Until now, the Scots language has not benefited from formal support from legislation. With growing support for the language, our commitment invites us to consider what we can do in that regard.

Individual bodies, such as the Scots Language Centre and Dictionaries of the Scots Language, have undertaken invaluable work on behalf of the language. Through that, they have increased the presence of Scots in education, culture and broadcasting. The bill builds on that work to further improve its representation in public life and make it more visible.

The challenges that are faced by Gaelic and Scots are faced by many of the world’s languages. It is part of a global picture in which 50 to 90 per cent of the approximately 7,000 languages that are spoken in the world today are estimated to be at risk of extinction by the end of the present century. The initiative to preserve and advance Gaelic and Scots is part of wider efforts against global language loss, and it is an initiative for which Scotland and the Scottish Government have a unique responsibility.

I will now continue in English as I talk to the committee.

I do not agree with them, but I think that you can meet people without necessarily—

Fishers are already under a weight of pressure to meet current regulations and face a significant cost in doing so, and there is the risk of conviction and so on. Clearly, we want to ensure that fishermen are doing the right thing, but what could such a fine do to a business?

Thanks very much for being here this morning.

So far, a lot of our discussion has centred on the challenges that you face just now or have been facing. I will move to the future, and there are two angles to my question. First, what is the prospect of positive change? Secondly, if there is no such prospect, what might be the long-term impact on markets when it comes to producers’ priorities and customers’ preferences?

I have asked a number of our stakeholders that first question. Is the prospect of change particularly high? In your view, does the evidence that you supply have any bearing on what the politicians and the negotiators might do when it comes to a review of the TCA? Does it just boil down to pure politics, or is there a route in? In the past few months, for example, there have been changes on horizon Europe, but a lot of things have not changed.

That is the substance of my first question. I might come back to the second question after you have answered, because there is a lot in asking two at the same time. What prospect for change is there, and how do you enact change?

I appreciate that. Your answer was a little bit more optimistic and hopeful than I was anticipating, so that is good. My second question is, how will your markets change over the coming years? The evidence in relation to salmon is just remarkable. Our briefing says that, in 2019, 53,000 tonnes of Scottish salmon was exported to the EU but that, in 2023, the volume was around 44,000 tonnes. Is that a trend?

Scottish salmon was the UK’s biggest food export in 2023, with France and the US leading global demand. The product is essential to Scotland's economy. Of course, all the sectors represented on our panel are essential to Scotland’s economy, but, if that substantial drop in salmon exports is not reversed, and if there is not a prospect of significant growth in food exports, for example, then Scotland will become poorer. That is pretty devastating. What does the future look like for your industries, and how do we ensure that our nation is not poorer because of the impacts on your industries?