Questions and answers

Question reference: S6O-02382

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what engagement the rural affairs secretary has had with the fishing industry in communities that may be impacted by its proposals for Highly Protected Marine Areas.

Question reference: S6O-02340

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what support it is providing for modern apprenticeships.

Question reference: S6O-02310

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 May 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is tackling depopulation in rural and island communities.

Question reference: S6W-17382

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 11 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been provided to support work or initiatives regarding diversity on Scotland's islands in each of the last 10 years, broken down by (a) island group and (b) government body providing the funding.

Question reference: S6W-16987

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the Minister for Transport will meet with communities in Shetland to discuss their transport needs.

Question reference: S6W-16986

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the Minister for Transport will meet with communities in Orkney to discuss their transport needs.

Collaboration and engagement is a cornerstone of all transport activity and there is community engagement at all levels of transport decision making. My predecessors and I, and Transport Scotland officials, have engaged with communities in developing and implementing strategies and on specific projects such as the Islands Connectivity Plan and Project Neptune, and will, of course, continue to do so in the future.

The previous Minister for Transport and the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands met with the Islands Strategic Group (ISG) on 9 March 2023. The ISG was established in 2016 to consider issues affecting our inhabited island communities, and to ensure greater involvement of the relevant councils in helping identify and design solutions to the unique needs and challenges we know these communities face. The next ISG, which includes the Islands Transport Forum, that I chair, is scheduled to meet next month.

In addition, in May I met with the leader of Orkney Islands Council, Councillor James Stockan, following the grounding of the MV Pentalina. In our discussion, I informed Councillor Stockan that I, and the Government, will continue to monitor the situation. Following discussions, I am pleased to confirm that NorthLink will be increasing sailings across the Pentland Firth to 4 sailings initially for three nights a week, with a review to assess on-going demand as we move further into the summer season.

Furthermore, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands launched the Young Islanders Network (YIN) on Orkney on the 31 August 2022 on behalf of the Scottish Government, providing children and young people with a platform to support meaningful contributions to National Islands Plan (NIP) delivery and to their current and future life on islands.

YIN members are empowered to set their own agenda – based on how they want to address the local and national priorities that matter to them the most.

Question reference: S6W-17381

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been provided to support sporting activities on Scotland's islands in each of the last 10 years, broken down by (a) island group and (b) government body providing the funding.

The Scottish Government understand the importance of sport and physical activity and the positive impact that it has on physical, mental, and social health. We want to create and provide every opportunity for participation in sport and physical activity for everyone in Scotland.

As part of The National Islands Plan Implementation Route Map, which can be viewed here , the Scottish Government have committed to support relevant local authorities to plan and develop sports facilities on the islands that respond to the needs of communities.

As the national agency for sport , sport scotland invests Scottish Government and National Lottery resources to help the people of Scotland get the most from the sporting system. sport scotland works in partnerships with Scottish Governing Bodies of sport (SGBs), local authorities, leisure trusts, sports clubs and community organisations, schools, colleges, and universities to provide greater opportunities for all to participate in sport.

The table below details sport scotland’s investment in each island local authority area, in each year, since 2013-14 (10-year period). This data covers investment by sport scotland, in both the local authority and other organisations in the local authority area, including investment for Active Schools, Community Sport Hubs, Sport Facilities Fund, National and Regional Facilities, Cycling Facilities Fund, Cashback for Communities, Active Places Fund, National Lottery Awards for All, Direct Club Investment, and Get Into Summer.

Table 1:

Local Authority area	Investment Period (financial year)											Total Investment by Local Authority area
Local Authority area	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	£220,328	£311,448	£226,959	£208,100	£196,100	£187,611	£206,871	£197,689	£235,894	£274,032	£2,265,032
Orkney Council	£210,664	£257,114	£176,580	£175,614	£172,114	£194,259	£182,444	£207,043	£230,966	£173,485	£1,980,283
Shetland Council	£370,030	£258,998	£684,669	£237,775	£223,678	£228,178	£226,134	£254,780	£259,549	£264,274	£3,008,065

sport scoltand also invest into the following three local authorities who geographically cover Island communities. The investment covers the whole local authority area and do not hold information on the investment breakdown on the individual islands.

Table 2:

Local Authority area	Investment Period (financial year)										Total Investment by Local Authority area
Local Authority area	2013-14	2014-25	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Argyll & Bute Council	£653,987	£691,752	£441,988	£411,779	£414,673	£334,104	£327,772	£580,282	£357,992	£349,922	£4,564,251
Highland Council	£1,559,566	£1,901,298	£2,423,568	£1,332,407	£1,197,435	£1,448,482	£1,224,698	£1,245,138	£1,748,235	£1,796,204	£15,877,031
North Ayrshire Council	£536,834	£13,274,320	£487,661	£788,037	£400,950	£588,507	£457,305	£631,365	£490,963	£794,331	£18,450,273

Notes for table 1 and 2

1. Investment is recorded in the year of award, and it is the level of award that is reported.

2. The investment is a mix of revenue and capital spend.

3. The investment is a mix of recurring investment in long-term programmes (e.g. Active Schools) and one-off investments through open application processes (e.g. National Lottery Awards for All).

4. The data does not include investment into national organisations. (e.g. sport scotland invests in around 50 Scottish Governing Bodies of sport. This investment is excluded from the table rather than being recorded against the local authority in which the head office of the organisation is based.)

5. The data does not include direct awards to individuals. (e.g. sport scotland Personal Awards to high performance athletes).

Further investment in supporting sporting activities is included in The Islands Programme for financial year 2021-22. This includes three project strands which are being delivered in collaboration with Scottish Futures Trust (SFT), Inspiring Scotland, HIE and other key partners:

o The Islands Infrastructure Fund (IIF)

o The Island Communities Fund (ICF)

o The Healthy Islands Fund (HIF)

£523,782 of IIF investment contributed to projects that developed sporting and physical activities. Geographically this is broken down as follows:

Orkney Islands - £443,782; and
Argyll and Bute Islands - £80,000.

£233,738 of ICF investment contributed to projects that developed sporting and physical activities. Geographically this is broken down as follows:

Argyll and Bute Islands - £75,600.00;
Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) - £80,920.00;
Orkney Islands - £7,477.48; and
North Ayrshire Islands - £69,741.00.

£1,122,954 of HIF contributed to projects that developed sports and physical activities. Geographically this is broken down as follows:

Argyll and Bute Islands – £34,052;
Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) - £392,961;
Highland Council Islands – £108,067;
North Ayrshire Islands - £100,690;
Orkney Islands - £359,567; and
Shetland Islands - £127,615.

In addition the £230 million ‘Restart the Economy’ capital stimulus package was announced by the then Cabinet Secretary for Finance on 16 June 2020. As part of the capital stimulus package, the £2 million Islands Green Recovery Programme (IGRP) launched on 13 September 2020.

£333,289 of IGRP investment contributed to projects that developed sporting and physical activities. Geographically this is broken down as follows:

Argyll and Bute Islands - £92,161; and
Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) - £241,128.

Question reference: S6W-17384

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 10 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of (a) residential properties and (b) businesses on Scotland's islands have access to superfast broadband, broken down by island group.

Information regarding superfast broadband coverage in Scotland can be accessed on Ofcom’s website. Ofcom’s most recent figures, published in December 2022 , show that as of September 2022 the percentage of residential and commercial premises able to access superfast broadband (30 Megabits per second or above) in the island local authority areas was as follows:

Na H-eileanan Siar
All Premises	77%
Residential Premises	77%
Commercial Premises	77%

Orkney Islands
All Premises	65%
Residential Premises	65%
Commercial Premises	68%

Shetland Islands
All Premises	71%
Residential Premises	72%
Commercial Premises	65%

Question reference: S6W-16985

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 10 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when the Minister for Transport will meet with communities on Skye to discuss local transport issues.

Collaboration and engagement is a cornerstone of all transport activity and there is community engagement at all levels of transport decision making. My predecessors and I, and Transport Scotland officials have engaged and will continue to engage with communities in developing and implementing strategies and on specific projects, such as the Islands Connectivity Plan and Project Neptune, and will continue to do so in the future.

For example, Transport Scotland recently chaired an Uig Resilience meeting on my behalf on 27 March 2023.

Whilst local transport issues are the responsibility of local authorities, Transport Scotland, my predecessors and I, have engaged and will continue to engage constructively with local authorities where proposals or projects are considered to have a potential impact on transport assets and services owned and/or provided by Scottish Ministers.

Question reference: S6W-17383

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 9 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to mitigate the economic impact on (a) South Uist and (b) other island communities of any extended periods when there is no ferry service.

I recognise that every cancelled sailing can have a significant impact and realise that this is not just about ferry service performance, it’s about delivering the confidence needed to sustain island communities, businesses, and populations.

In addition to investment in new vessels, Scottish Minsters have provided funding for the charter of MV Alfred to improve resilience over a nine month period. I can assure you that I, along with my officials at Transport Scotland, will continue to work closely with and support CalMac to resolve issues as best we can and minimise periods where services are restricted.

Chamber and committees