Chamber and committees

Scottish Government is consulting Bòrd na Gidhlig in support of developing the Addressing Depopulation Action Plan, building on previous engagement to understand better the linkages between Gaelic language and culture, and population retention, undertaken during the Islands Bond consultation.

We have commissioned multiple projects to explore issues that may impact on population retention and growth, including the impact on Gaelic. We have also supported Argyll and Bute Council to deliver a project across Bute, Coll, and Tiree about supporting the growth and normalisation of Gaelic usage in the islands to improve employment, economic development and social cohesion.

Scottish Government engages with local authorities about depopulation across multiple fronts including: the SG/COSLA population roundtable; the Convention of the Highlands and Islands population working group; learning from Community Settlement Officers based in local authorities. This ensures we understand local-level population challenges, to enable development of a place-based approach to tackling them. Engagement will continue prior to publication and into the first phase of delivery.

We also engaged extensively through the Islands Bond consultation with the six local authorities with islands. Lessons from this led to a range of community-based projects to inform the Action Plan’s development.

The following table details the number of hate crimes that included a religion aggravator in Scotland, by police division.

Table 1: Religious hate crimes by police division: 2016-17 to 2021-22

The UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 sets out the requirement for annual reports of the Scottish Ministers use, planned use and considered use of the Section 1(1) power of the Act. The Scottish Government has no plans to propose changes to the Act in respect of reporting its use of the Section 1(1) power. However, The Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, Culture and External Affairs wrote to the Convener of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture committee on 28 June to propose providing further information annually on the policy commitment to EU alignment, namely:

· how alignment has been considered in respect of legislation made in the Scottish Parliament over the reporting year;

· an assessment of EU legislation made over the reporting year that may be relevant to the commitment to align;

· where Scotland’s policy priorities in respect of the EU lie in the coming year; and

· reporting of the impact of the UK Government’s Retained EU Law Bill on Scotland and our ability to align with the EU to protect high standards.

Ministers look forward to receiving the Committee’s consideration of these proposals, and shall continue to work with the committee to ensure transparency in our approach to Parliament.

As set out in the Continuity Act policy statement agreed with Parliament in June 2022, the Scottish Government will seek to align with the EU where appropriate and in a manner that contributes towards maintaining and advancing standards across a range of policy areas. This is done using a range of legislative and non-legislative means, including using the power in section 1(1) power of the Continuity Act to make secondary legislation where appropriate.

Ministers are required to report to Parliament annually on use, considered use and planned use in the next reporting period of the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021. The 2021-22 Report laid in parliament details that this power has been used once in 2022 to align with the health based standards of the EU Recast Directive (EU) 2020/2184 on drinking water for human consumption. This measure took effect on 1 January 2023. In 2024, and the remainder of 2023 the Scottish Government will use this power if it is the most appropriate means to deliver alignment. If this power is used the Scottish Government will inform parliament through the agreed reporting process.

Scottish Ministers and SG officials meet with NRS on a regular basis, to discuss a wide range of matters, such as the Census. Most recently, the Minister for Community Wealth and Public Finance met with the interim Chief Executive on 5 July 2023 and I met with her on 20 July 2023.

Stantec’s Community Needs Assessments report on transport connectivity for Cowal and Rosneath is still being finalised and will be published in due course. The outputs from all the Community Needs Assessment will also feed into the Islands Connectivity Plan.

We intend to publish our first Annual Report setting out the contribution of our international offices by the end of December 2023. This will allow time to gather the information required from the business plans of each office for 2023-24 as well as the monitoring and evaluation reports covering 2022-23.

The Scottish Government understands that a Dundee consortium, led by Abertay University, have been successful in their bid to house one of three regional CoSTAR labs, which attracts a portion of the £12.5m funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for these regional labs.

We welcome engagement with all relevant parties to help ensure the success of this project, and all work that contributes to a sustainable future for Scotland’s creative industries and related technology sectors.

Since May 2021, the Scottish Government has had 2 Ministerial meetings with Channel 4.

As outcomes the Scottish Government reiterated its opposition to the proposals from the UK Government to privatise Channel 4. We welcome that these proposals have now been dropped.

Also discussed were Channel 4’s wider plans and opportunities for Scotland Channel 4.