Chamber and committees

VisitScotland, the national tourism agency, works closely with industry and local authorities to help ensure local tourism infrastructure is sufficient to meet visitor demand. Its marketing campaigns are ordinarily run in Spring and Autumn to encourage more visits in the shoulder months and trips to less busy parts of the country at peak times. While it does not specifically assess availability across Scotland, the £3m per annum Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund is a key intervention in terms of ensuring sufficient basic infrastructure, such as toilets, car parks and footpaths, in local communities to help accommodate high volumes of visitors at peak times.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise also actively engages with the tourism industry at a local, regional and national level to understand the immediate needs of the sector and emerging longer term needs. Examples of this include participation in destination-led forums such as the Cairngorm Tourism Emergency Response Group; regionally by way of engagement with groups such as the Association of Scotland’s Visitor Attractions, the NC500 hoteliers group, and Sail Scotland; and nationally as part of the Scottish Tourism Alliance Council.

HIE and VisitScotland are working with partners to review and further develop the recently launched National Tourism Strategy ‘Scotland Outlook 2030’ in the light of the pandemic to ensure the commitments in the initial document are still valid. They have supported the industry to prepare for reopening and adopt new requirements for a safe and responsible restart and have facilitated discussions with community groups and organisations to build confidence within residents and locals that the tourism industry and agencies will be work together with places and destinations during reopening.

Recognising the important strategic role of Destination Management Organisations in working with businesses and communities to support recovery, HIE has committed to provision of a £3m Tourism DMO Recovery Fund. The fund will maximise delivery of industry support and accelerate a coordinated and collaborative approach to recovery. Nationally in conjunction with partners, HIE is delivering key elements of the national programmes of support including £9m to the hotel sector to protect employment and support a sustainable future for this critical component of the industry. HIE is also supporting around 55 community organisations to deliver £2.6m of community-led tourism capital infrastructure with HIE contributing grant funding of £1.46m.

The total public spend on fencing and deer management for each of the last five years is presented in the following table.

The Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018 places a duty on Scottish Ministers (and Scottish public authorities so far as is consistent with the proper exercise of their functions) to promote sustainable forest management and Scottish Ministers are also under a duty to prepare a forestry strategy and in doing so to have regard to the code of practice on deer management (drawn up under section 5A of the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996).

The Scottish Government has been clear that land managers, whether they be private, public, community or Non-Government Organisation (NGO), have a responsibility to manage deer. The code of practice on deer management (drawn up under section 5A of the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996) describes the public interests land managers should seek to deliver alongside their private objectives. NatureScot and Scottish Forestry work closely with those who manage deer across Scotland to assist in the delivery of sustainable deer management.

The code of practice on deer management (drawn up under section 5A of the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996) defines sustainable deer management as managing deer to achieve the best combination of benefits for the economy, environment, people and communities for now and for future generations.

The report of the independent Deer Working Group, which was published on 29 January 2020, recognises the interdependencies between sustainable deer management and sustainable forest management and makes recommendations to more closely align the delivery of both these key areas. We will publish our formal response to the report in due course.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd have received no additional funding from the Scottish Government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and have not requested any additional funding.

The Scottish Government has provided CalMac Ferries Ltd with additional funding of £17,587,000 to date in this financial year, which has enabled them to respond to the financial pressures arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This additional funding allows CalMac Ferries Ltd to cover costs whilst generating lower revenues as a result of COVID-19 travel restrictions and reduced capacity due to physical distancing measures.

Transport Scotland is in regular dialogue with CalMac Ferries Ltd on a range of issues including Covid-19 procedures.

CalMac follows both NHS advice and Scottish Government guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus for both their staff and passengers, and have measures and mitigations in place to keep passengers and crew safe. On the routes that are bookable, CalMac can share the information captured with the NHS if requested. On some shorter routes, there is the option for people to stay in their vehicles during passage.

Transport Scotland is exploring the feasibility of QR code scanning on ferry journeys, to compliment the NHS Test and Protect contact tracing service, and are liaising with CalMac to implement a pilot Test and Protect QR code system.

The preparation and publication of the final business case for the repair of the Cairngorm funicular is the responsibility of Highlands and Islands Enterprise. I have therefore asked the Chief Executive to respond to you directly.

The preparation and publication of the final business case for the repair of the Cairngorm funicular is the responsibility of Highlands and Islands Enterprise. I have therefore asked the Chief Executive to respond to you directly.

The preparation and publication of the final business case for the repair of the Cairngorm funicular is the responsibility of Highlands and Islands Enterprise. I have therefore asked the Chief Executive to respond to you directly.

The Scottish Government routinely publishes analysis of changes in UK inflation (CPIH) and earnings in Scotland in its Monthly Economic Brief. The latest version of the brief is available at this link:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/monthly-economic-brief-october-2020/

Employment law is reserved to the UK Government and changes to pay are generally driven by employer and employee engagement. But we are doing all we can with the powers available to us to promote fair working practices here in Scotland, including ensuring people have security of income.

The Scottish Government is committed to the principles of Fair Work, including payment of at least the real Living Wage to all workers. Our flagship Fair Work First policy asks employers to commit to adopting fair working practices to help create workplaces where workers have greater security of pay and contract, can develop their skills, and have an effective voice.

The Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) for 2020 reports that Scotland remains the best performing of all four UK countries for the percentage of employees (aged 18 years and over) paid the real Living Wage or more (84.8%).