Chamber and committees

Since May 2021, the Scottish Government has had 5 Ministerial meetings with the BBC.

As outcomes there is a shared their commitment to working positively and constructively to help deliver programming and skills training that benefits Scotland culturally and economically.

Since May 2021, the Scottish Government has not held any Ministerial meetings with All Perspectives Ltd, which owns GB News.

Within this period, Scottish Government culture officials have also not met with All Perspectives Ltd on either a formal or informal basis.

Since May 2021, the Scottish Government has had 5 Ministerial meetings with STV.  

As outcomes, there was a shared commitment to ensuring the sustainability of public service broadcasting, STV licence renewal, and support for the wider screen sector and creative industries.

Since May 2021, the Scottish Government has not held any Ministerial meetings with Sky UK Limited.

Within this period, Scottish Government culture officials have also not met with Sky UK Limited on either a formal or informal basis.

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.

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.

Information on data quality will be included as part of the first release in autumn 2023.

The changes to the methods for producing census estimates have not fundamentally changed the way in which NRS is quality assuring and validating the data before publication.

Professor James Brown, Professor of Official Statistics Sydney, Chair of the International Steering Group noted: “Decisions were made on a sound methodological basis, providing NRS with a strong position for the statistical processing phase.”

In their Statistical Quality Assurance Strategy , NRS made a distinction between quality assurance at every step of the census data processing journey and validation of final estimates. By assessing quality at each step, NRS can be confident that errors are not being introduced while processing the data.

Administrative data is being used for two purposes in Scotland’s Census 2022: quality assurance and statistical estimation. For Scotland’s Census 2011, administrative data was used solely for quality assurance.

For Scotland’s Census 2011, 12 administrative data sources were used to quality assure census population estimates. More information can be found in the following publication: Overview of Administrative Comparator Data Used in 2011 Census Quality Assurance .

The original design for Scotland’s Census 2022 included the use of 25 administrative data sources from across the Scottish public sector to quality assure census outputs.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) have adapted the original design by extending the use of administrative data and evolving their statistical estimation methodology. In June 2023, NRS published a paper outlining these enhancements.

Guided by the census International Steering Group (ISG), NRS performed a review of UK data sources to identify which would be most appropriate to meet the specific needs of Scotland’s Census 2022.

The ISG identified both essential and desirable administrative data sources. All 6 administrative data sources deemed as essential by ISG were obtained and are being used in the statistical estimation. NRS is also using 2 desirable sources.

The first release of census data will be in autumn 2023. This release will include:

• Population by age and sex at Scotland and Local Authority level (rounded)
• Number of households at Scotland and Local Authority level (rounded)

Up to date information on future releases can be found on the census outputs schedule webpage .

In line with the requirements of the Code of Practice for Statistics, National Records of Scotland will publish the specific release date and time for each publication at least four weeks in advance.

The original design for Scotland’s Census 2022 included the use of administrative data from across the Scottish public sector to quality assure the outputs produced from the census data.

Following the collect phase, and working closely with a group of international census experts, National Records of Scotland (NRS) have adapted their statistical methods to deliver estimates which represent 100% of Scotland’s population. This includes the increased use of administrative data alongside the Census Coverage Survey to help estimate how many people did not respond to the census.

In June 2023, NRS published a paper outlining the methodology enhancements to secure high quality census outputs and population estimates .