Chamber and committees

In addition to reporting requirements associated with our delivery partner’s (Youth Scotland) Offer of Grant and their own associated progress monitoring and reporting, the National Islands Plan itself has governance structures, including the NIP Delivery Group (which includes representation from the YIN), the Islands Strategic Group and our requirement to produce an Annual Report on the implementation of the National Islands Plan to Parliament.

To date the Scottish Government has paid £160,000 to deliver the Young Islanders Network.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many street lights could presently be retrofitted to include electric vehicles charging points broken down by local authority area. Whilst electric vehicle charging technologies exists for such an application, not all street lights will be suitable for a number of reasons including their proximity to the public road.

Supporting those without access to off-street charging will require a range of approaches. We have invested almost £60m to develop a public EV network and this year announced a new £60m EV Infrastructure Fund that aims to double the size of the public charging network in the next few years. We are also taking forward legislation to ensure developers provide electric vehicle charge points in the construction of new residential and non-residential buildings, to increase both the convenience and number of charging opportunities across Scotland.

The initial phase of the project is nearly complete. This early work has sought to understand how we identify communities which have been affected by repeated water scarcity events, to establish the proximity to public water mains, to assess the water network capacity and estimate the costs associated with extending the mains to potentially allow those on private water supplies to make a connection. Scottish Water is completing the studies with final results expected soon.

The Scottish Government did not allocate any finance for the Young Islanders Challenge in 2021-22. However, £28,500 was allocated to our delivery partner, Youth Scotland, to support the Young Islanders Challenge in 2020-21.

The feedback gathered through our engagement on the Islands Bond since October 2021, (including meeting over 100 island residents across 12 island communities in spring 2022), is now being used to shape a range of Practical Policy Tests (PPTs). These in turn will help to inform the development of a new action plan to address depopulation as set out in our 2019 National Islands Plan.

We are carefully considering all options presented to us through the online consultation, meetings with communities and stakeholders, and through the in-person workshops we held in spring 2022. More information will be made available in due course as the PPTs develop.

Both the work on developing the Islands Bond, and undertaking the Islands Bond consultation process were led by the Scottish Government’s Islands Team as part of their overall work to support our islands.

Additional input was sought from other policy areas as needed.

The cost of the analysis was £18,240.

We are all shocked by the devastating effects of the floods in Pakistan, with children reported to be the most vulnerable; UNICEF has reported that some 17,566 schools nationwide have been damaged or destroyed. The Scottish Government has made £500,000 in funds available to be split between the Disasters Emergency Committee and the Humanitarian Emergency Fund. This is a clear example of loss and damage caused by climate change, speaking to the importance of Scotland’s leadership in this area. It is important that we stand in solidarity with Pakistan, its people, and the diaspora community during this crisis. I met with the Pakistan Consul General in Glasgow on 7 September to hear first-hand the situation on the ground, and to offer Scotland’s support. We are working with the Pakistani community to ensure that we provide consistent messaging on how they might best assist the people of Pakistan during this time.

The Scottish Government has not been consulted or invited to engage with the UK Government on its new 5-year acquisitions programme, including where this involves those contemporary visual artists who are based in Scotland. The Scottish Government is aware that the UK Government is dealing with the Scottish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN) directly on this project.