Chamber and committees

The First Minister visited Dublin between the 5 and 6 October 2017 in order to build on Scotland’s bilateral relations with Ireland, promote Scotland’s strengths as a destination for Irish investors, build our links with the Irish business community and encourage collaboration in areas of shared economic and cultural interest. Ireland is an important partner for Scotland and further strengthening our bilateral relationship continues to be a priority for this government.

During the visit, the First Minister held her first full bilateral meeting with the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar since his appointment in June 2017. Discussion focused on matters of shared interest across a range of policy priorities including the economy, particularly inclusive growth, how we continue to ensure fair access to high quality education, and social issues, including public health provision, where it was agreed there was substantive scope to share experiences.

On Brexit, the First Minister explained Scotland’s position, and both agreed it was in our common interest that the UK remain in the Single Market and the Customs Union. On Northern Ireland, the First Minister stressed that any outcome of the Brexit negotiations should protect the Good Friday Agreement in its entirety, promote peace and stability, and ensure no change to the current open border on the island of Ireland. Both parties agreed on the continued strategic relevance of the British Irish Council and the importance of a strong, high level UK Government attendance at this year’s Summit meeting in Jersey.

The Taoiseach and First Minister also discussed the role of devolved administrations in the Brexit negotiation process. The First Minister reassured the Taoiseach that the Scottish Government is committed to safeguarding Scotland’s interests, continues to act in good faith and is determined that Scotland’s voice should be heard through the Joint Ministerial Committee process.

Following the meeting with the Taoiseach, the First Minister attended the Dublin Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner, where she delivered the keynote address to an audience of some 1500 Irish and international business leaders. In the First Minister’s address, she set out the Scottish Government’s vision for Scotland’s economy, outlined why Irish based businesses should continue to invest in and trade with Scotland, opportunities for economic collaboration and that despite Brexit, Scotland remains open for business and continues to be an attractive place for investment as well as a close partner and ally for Ireland and Irish business.

The following morning, the First Minister attended a private working breakfast where she had the opportunity to directly relay this message to some of the largest Irish investors in the Scottish economy, as well as major international investors in the Irish economy.

Concluding the trip to Dublin, the First Minister visited the Ark (a Dublin based children’s theatre and Ireland’s only dedicated space for children to engage in the creative arts and cultural development), where she met with a Scottish children’s theatre and dance company, which has been supported by Scottish Government and was in Dublin to perform as part of the Dublin Fringe Theatre festival. This was an excellent opportunity to restate the importance of Scottish- Irish cultural links, and how these links can support cultural and educational opportunities for children, teachers and families.

The First Minister’s visit was followed by a visit from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Constitution to Dublin on the 12 October, where he met with the Irish Government Minister for Financial Services and Insurance to discuss the potential for future collaboration between the Scottish and Irish financial services industries. Later the same day, the Cabinet Secretary participated in a conference hosted by PWC Ireland, at which key leaders from the Irish and Scottish financial services sectors came together to discuss in more detail the development of closer collaboration. Mr MacKay was also in Belfast on 6 October to deliver the keynote address to the annual dinner of the Belfast Homecoming conference, in which he focused on the links between the Northern Irish and Scottish diasporas, and the potential to further strengthen our economic links.

New appointments have been made to the positions of Scottish Affairs Counsellor to North America and First Secretary of Scottish Affairs in Beijing

Joni Smith has been appointed to the position of Scottish Affairs Counsellor to North America. Joni has worked within the Civil Service since 2005 and was formerly Head of the First Minister’s Questions Briefing Team, with other roles including as a Senior Policy Adviser to the First Minister and Private Secretary to the former Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Alex Neil MSP. She holds an extensive Communications background, previously working as a broadcast journalist and subsequently working across various communications team prior to becoming Head of Communications for the then Deputy First Minister and Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon MSP in 2012.

Joni will be based in our Scottish Affairs Office within the British Embassy in Washington DC where she will lead on promoting Scotland's interests in the United States and Canada. The USA is Scotland's biggest overseas trading partner, our largest inward investor and a hugely valuable tourism market, with US students accounting for the second largest overseas group in Scotland and links between Scottish schools, colleges and universities and their counterparts in the USA are constantly developing. Work on our relationship with Canada is also essential, with Canada holding a special significance for Scotland, both as a major export and tourism market but also due to the strong and enduring historical links between our two countries and the prevalence of a well-defined Scottish Diaspora. This work will be supported by Scottish Government colleagues in Toronto.

Martin McDermott has been appointed First Secretary of Scottish Affairs based in the British Embassy in Beijing. Martin joined the Scottish Government in 2003 and has held variety of policy positions across Scottish Government Directorates, including in Justice, Education and Lifelong Learning. Martin’s recent posts include leading public and stakeholder engagement in the run up to the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014 and most recently as Head of Legislation, Finance and Delivery within the Social Security Directorate.

Martin will promote and represent the Scottish Government’s cultural, educational and economic interests in China and this work will be guided by our China Engagement Strategy, due for renewal in 2018, which will outline our priorities in China and ensure that respect for human rights and the rule of law remains one of our guiding principles.

Scotland’s Population 2016: the Registrar General’s Annual Review of Demographic Trends will be published on 2 August 2017. The Report contains information about births, deaths and marriages during the year, together with other demographic information. A copy of the report is available in the Scottish Parliament Reference Centre, or from the Registrar General’s website at www.nrscotland.gov.uk

The number of female victims of homicide who were killed by either a partner or an ex-partner in Scotland between 2011-12 and 2015-16 are shown in the following table. The National Statistics for 2016-17 will be published in October this year.

The number of female victims who were killed by either a partner or ex-partner,

Scotland, 2011-12 to 2015-16

Source: Homicide in Scotland, 2015-16

The First Minister visited the United States between the 2^nd and 7^th April attending events and meetings in California and New York.

The visit focused on promoting trade and investment, boosting tourism, sharing best practice across the public and private sector and promoting Scottish innovation, entrepreneurship and culture.

The relationship between Scotland and America is an important one with deep and long-standing ties reflected by the strong economic, cultural and personal links of our citizens. The US is Scotland’s top source of inward investment, accounting for 36% of projects and is Scotland’s second largest export partner - worth £4.56 billion or 15.9% of all international exports.

This visit came at a crucial time following the UK’s vote to leave the EU and the single market, and only days after the formal triggering of Article 50. It was important that the First Minister took this opportunity to reassure businesses and visitors from the United States that Scotland is an outward looking, welcoming country and remains open for business.

Beginning her engagements in California the First Minister, joined by Dr Lena Wilson of Scottish Enterprise and Chief Scientific Advisor Professor Sheila Rowan, focussed on opportunities for Scotland’s technology sector, low carbon innovation, university collaborations, and Scottish start-ups.

The First Minister met representatives from Par Equity and confirmed that Par Equity will open its first office in San Francisco and launch a $125 million fund, focussed on providing investment opportunities in health technology in Scotland and access to the US market for Scottish companies.

At Stanford the First Minister hosted a business breakfast for an influential business and academic audience in which she promoted Scottish Government support for high quality international research partnerships that further the economic, scientific and social aims of both Scotland and California, with specific reference to Strathclyde, Stanford and the SU2P initiative which also includes the universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh, Heriot Watt and Glasgow.

Meetings with Apple and Tesla concentrated on opportunities for shared public and private sector collaboration in the areas of next generation health and well-being research, including the use of digital health and care to deliver better results through personalised, proactive and self-managed care and on opportunities to further develop Scotland’s sustainable energy initiatives and reinforce the strategic importance of energy storage technology to Scotland’s wider energy strategy, highlighting the common goal of a holistic energy system.

The First Minister also hosted a dinner with representatives of major US firms to discuss opportunities for Scotland in Silicon Valley and met with American angel investors, ahead of a delegation of seven female CEO’s supported by Investing Women to California, to highlight the Scottish Governments vision of Scotland as a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation committed to unleashing the economic potential of women.

Building on the technology focus of the visit, the First Minister later visited the Flatiron School, a digital skills academy in New York that is helping equip people with skills to gain employment in ICT and digital technology occupations. The Flatiron school provided an opportunity to learn from one of the foremost digital skills academies in the world and followed the announcement that the Scottish Government is to make £36 million available in loans to business to support digital skills training.

The visit also focussed on key economic opportunities in the financial services sector, food and drink and tourism.

In New York the First Minister met with representatives of Marriott Hotels and welcomed their continued investment and strong growth pipeline in Scotland including their commitment to create 7 new hotels and 1,400 new rooms in Scotland by 2021, reinforcing Scotland’s key tourism investment and visitor attraction strengths at a global leadership level.

She also met with Executives from TripAdvisor and announced a European-first, multi-year collaboration, with VisitScotland. The unique partnership with the world’s largest travel website will attract up to 70 million new visitors every year generating a potential additional spend of £150million.

Celebrating Scotland’s food and drink industry success the First Minister attended a showcase event in New York organised by Scottish Development International to promote Scottish produce to an audience of over 100 North American buyers and industry influencers and to showcase new agreements secured by Scottish firms worth £8m of export sales to North America, further strengthening food and drink exports in a market that was worth £1billion in 2016.

The First Minister also held business meetings with Morgan Stanley and BlackRock to further develop the relationships with key inward investors and met with staff and graduates at Aberdeen Asset Management, officially opening their expansion in New York and discussed economic developments in Scotland, Europe and the US with Professor Joseph Stiglitz of the Council of Economic Advisers.

In addition to the focus on business and investment, the First Minister met Scottish Ballet Youth Exchange students studying at the prestigious New York University TISCH School of the Performing Arts, supported by Scottish Government funding.

Fourteen participants from Scotland’s leading performing arts schools aged between 14 and 24 are currently taking part in a two week visit to the US, collaborating with dance students from TISCH. This allows Scottish Ballet to showcase Scottish dance training abroad and to create a new work to be premiered at The Joyce Theater in New York City.

This initiative was part of a wider £100,000 International Touring Fund awarded to Scottish Ballet this year to enable their first ever run in New York

The First Minister also hosted a reception to celebrate the Scottish Ballet’s first tenure in New York City, and promoted the world-class calibre of Scottish performing arts.

The visit also provided an opportunity to highlight the contribution Scotland can make to key global challenges.

During the California leg of her visit the First Minister reaffirmed Scotland’s role in tackling climate change during a meeting with the Governor of California. She signed a joint agreement between Scotland and California committing to work together on climate change. The First Minister and the Governor discussed how the two administrations could work together to achieve the ambitions set out in the Under2 MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) and the importance of offshore wind in tackling climate change and considered how the two governments could share knowledge and best practice in developing this technology.

The First Minister followed the agreement with a speech to over 250 Stanford academics and students on Scotland’s Place in the World which can be viewed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T4QeptQTV0 The First Minister then took part in a Q&A, hosted by Professor Michael McFaul, Director at The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

Attending the 8th Women in the World Summit, the First Minister discussed Scotland’s commitment to equality, her personal experience of being a female leader and the importance of empowering women and girls. This followed on from a visit by the First Minister to the UN where she held meetings with UN Women, the Head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UK’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. During a speech at the UN, the First Minister announced £1.2m of funding to train more than 200 women from conflict zones around the world on peacekeeping and conflict resolution. The First Minister used her address to highlight the importance of mediation and respect for human rights as a way of preventing conflict, and lent her support to the UN Secretary General’s call for more female representation in the United Nations.

Keith Brown MSP, the then Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities, opened the first of a series of UK-wide HS2 Supply Chain Conferences in Edinburgh on 5 November 2015 to inform Scotland-based companies of the forthcoming opportunities to bid for contracts to build HS2. A further Supply Chain Conference was held in Aberdeen on 6 September 2016.

The Cabinet Secretary and I also met with Sir David Higgins, Executive Chairman of HS2 Ltd and Mark Thurston, the new Chief Executive of HS2 Ltd on 7 February 2017. These discussions included the construction schedule for Phase 1 and the forthcoming design contract opportunities for Phase two.