Question reference: S6W-25593
- Asked by: Alasdair Allan, MSP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 15 February 2024
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Current status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Emma Roddick on 16 February 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its work to publish an Addressing Depopulation Action Plan, as committed to in the First Minister’s policy prospectus and in the Programme for Government 2023-24.
Answer
Today, the Scottish Government publishes its new Addressing Depopulation Action Plan, which sets out our approach to the issue of population decline affecting some communities in Scotland. The Plan builds on the work of the Ministerial Population Taskforce in delivering Scotland’s Population Strategy, which was published in March 2021.
This new Action Plan describes a range of work which will be delivered in partnership with local authorities, enterprise agencies, communities and other local actors, alongside a range of current and future Scottish Government national delivery priorities to support communities affected by population decline.
Building on this Action Plan, the next phase of our work will be informed by the small area outputs from Scotland’s Census 2022, which are due to be published in Spring 2024. These data will enable us to consider even more targeted and focused interventions in support of community sustainability.
The publication can be accessed via the following link: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781835217177 .