Chamber and committees

Both Burns Night and St Andrew’s Day are important opportunities in the calendar to promote Scotland’s interests internationally: highlighting Scottish culture and food and drink, presenting opportunities to engage a global audience and opening doors for future trade, investment and collaboration.

The figures requested are presented in the following tables. In the past twelve months, when the majority of covid restrictions were no longer in force, eight offices undertook public activity linked to Burns Night in 2023, and all nine did so at events linked to St Andrew’s Day 2022. The planned Burns programme in Paris this year was not able to proceed due to safety concerns in the city at that time.

All our international offices are preparing St Andrew’s Day events for 2023, as part of a programme promoting Scotland internationally throughout the Winter Festivals season leading up to Burns Night in 2024. Diplomatic, trade and investment and cultural engagement delivered by offices in the international network around both Burns Night and St Andrews Day includes joint working with SDI, the FCDO, and other government and external partners both at home in Scotland and in-country, hosting events or representing Scotland at established events.

Covid restrictions from the spring of 2020 through to early 2022 meant that much in-person activity was suspended, and offices collaborated within the network and with other partners to host or promote virtual and online celebrations instead. Some St Andrew’s Day activity for 2022 in Beijing was postponed due to ongoing restrictions, and took place in March 2023.

(a) Burns Night

We are unaware of any fines issued by the Scottish Government to Scottish Water in the last five years; there are no privately-owned water companies in Scotland.

Following referral by relevant agencies to the Procurator Fiscal, fines issued in the period are set out below:

Referral by Scottish Environment Protection Agency:

2019 - £600

2020 - £19 000

2021 - £6 700

Referral by Health & Safety Executive:

2020 - £140 000

Additionally, there has been one enforcement undertaking of £53 800 accepted by SEPA in 2021 and a direct penalty of £10,000 to Scottish Road Works Commissioner in 2023.

As part of the Scottish Government’s efforts to drive global climate ambition and action ahead of New York Climate Week and COP28, the First Minister and I met with the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, on 24 August. We discussed renewable energy, securing a Just Transition to a net zero and climate resilient future and our shared ambitions for COP28. The US Special Envoy asked about the constitutional position of Scotland, including independence, in the context of Scotland’s climate and net zero objectives. The First Minister set out the Scottish Government’s position on independence and the Scottish Government’s view of how this can be taken forward.

The Scottish Government values the impressive work that the Scottish Civic Trust does to coordinate the national Doors Open Days festival each year, which is the largest free heritage festival in Scotland and delivers many benefits by connecting people with their local historic environment. This is why the Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development was pleased to provide an opening address for the festival and met with the Scottish Civic Trust recently in-person to discuss the opportunities and challenges the festival offers.

Financial support for the Scottish Civic Trust’s Doors Open Days and My Place Photography Competition has been secured through our lead public body for heritage, Historic Environment Scotland, which has committed over £100,000 each for this and the next two years from its Partnership Fund.

Telecommunications policy is Reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government does not collect or hold data on access to 5G services across Scotland.

However Ofcom’s mobile coverage checker ( https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/mobile-coverage ) provides a spatial view of this data. Raw coverage data, at local authority and various Parliamentary constituency levels, is available at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/multi-sector-research/infrastructure-research/spring-202

For young children, learning to read is foundational to their success across the school curriculum and, importantly, is also linked to a wide range of positive outcomes including those of emotional, social and mental wellbeing.

Through different forms of support and guidance, Education Scotland advises on the most effective research-informed approaches to reading, what they are and how to use them. Education Scotland will publish new guidelines and professional learning resources for teachers (PLRs), focussed on early reading, in early Spring 2024.

These resources are designed to promote teachers’ professional knowledge and understanding of early reading as a complex interplay of skills and background factors. In line with other items of guidance relating to Scotland’s curriculum, the resources are being developed within a broader context which seeks to empower schools to adapt their approach to meet the needs of individual learners. In creating the guidance, Education Scotland officials are working alongside teachers and a range of stakeholders with an interest in early reading in order to use their feedback to inform the development process.

The regulation of the energy sector is reserved to the UK Government.

Planning enforcement powers are held by local authorities. Planning authorities can take action to issue a fixed penalty notice or seek prosecution through the Scottish courts. Local authorities are required to keep a publicly available register of enforcement notices.

We are unaware of any fines issued by the Scottish Government to power companies in the last five years; and the Scottish Government does not hold any relevant data relating to our agencies.

The Scottish Government places great importance on sports and leisure facilities and believes everyone should have access to these services locally.

We recognise the challenging financial circumstances faced by operators in the maintenance and operating of facilities, including the increase in insurance premiums.

It is vital that partners at a local level work together to explore all avenues and approaches to support local sport and leisure facilities.

The Scottish Government welcomes the hard work of the National Tartan Day New York Committee in organising Tartan Week each year. They come together to honour their heritage and celebrate the impact of Scots in the US. Our office in Washington DC works closely with members of the Brand Scotland partnership, including Scottish Development International and Visit Scotland, to create a programme of engagement that harnesses the increased focus on Scotland during this time.

I am pleased to see Tartan Day also celebrated in Canada (where it originated) and the celebration of Scotland in other parts of the world throughout the year, including various Highland Games, Burns Suppers, Tartan Balls and Festivals. Our Scottish Connections Framework outlines our approach to supporting diaspora engagement with Scotland and people in other countries.

The percentage of the local government finance settlement that has been ring-fenced, by local authority, in each year since 2016-17, is set out in a document that has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Bib number 64545.