Chamber and committees

Our response to the National Partnership for Culture’s recommendations committed to begin the scoping of a new Youth Arts Strategy, which we are taking forward with Creative Scotland. Our refreshed Culture Strategy Action Plan, which will be published in the coming months, will provide an update on this work.

As set out in Programme for Government 2023, the Scottish Government is continuing to prioritise working across the Health and Wellbeing portfolio to maximise the contribution of culture to achieving key cross-policy outcomes.

The Scottish Government has set up an internal Health and Culture Working Group to support this work and will continue to ensure that culture is represented in any wider Scottish Government discussions about social prescribing going forward.

Scotland’s AI Strategy , published in 2021, set out a vision for Scotland to become a leader in the development and use of trustworthy, ethical and inclusive AI. Creative Scotland were represented on the steering committee during its development.

The Scottish AI Alliance is tasked with the delivery of the strategy. They recently hosted a roundtable on encountering AI through art, and continue to host and promote events and engagement around the application and impact of AI in the culture sector.

As such, the Scottish Government has no plans to develop an artificial intelligence strategy specifically in relation to the culture sector.

As confirmed in my evidence to the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee on 5 October, we will publish our Culture Strategy Action Plan Refresh in the coming months, in line with our commitment in the current Programme for Government. The refreshed Action Plan will set out the workstreams we will take forward in response to the challenges that are brought about by the changed landscape the culture sector is now working in.

Over the next five year Control Period, the Scottish Government has committed to invest £4.2 billion in the Scottish rail infrastructure in line with our High Level Output Specification. This specification focuses on climate change adaptation and resilience as one of the strategic priorities and makes provision for enhancing the Weather Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation strategy.

As of the morning of 9 October 2023 there were 165 young people held in young offender institutions in Scotland, five of whom were under the age of 18.

The most recent Programme for Government (2023-24) sets out the Scottish Government’s intention to introduce the Scottish Languages Bill in this current parliamentary year.

Both Burns Night and St Andrew’s Day are important opportunities in the calendar to promote Scotland’s interests internationally: highlighting Scottish culture and food and drink, presenting opportunities to engage a global audience and opening doors for future trade, investment and collaboration.

The figures requested are presented in the following tables. In the past twelve months, when the majority of covid restrictions were no longer in force, eight offices undertook public activity linked to Burns Night in 2023, and all nine did so at events linked to St Andrew’s Day 2022. The planned Burns programme in Paris this year was not able to proceed due to safety concerns in the city at that time.

All our international offices are preparing St Andrew’s Day events for 2023, as part of a programme promoting Scotland internationally throughout the Winter Festivals season leading up to Burns Night in 2024. Diplomatic, trade and investment and cultural engagement delivered by offices in the international network around both Burns Night and St Andrews Day includes joint working with SDI, the FCDO, and other government and external partners both at home in Scotland and in-country, hosting events or representing Scotland at established events.

Covid restrictions from the spring of 2020 through to early 2022 meant that much in-person activity was suspended, and offices collaborated within the network and with other partners to host or promote virtual and online celebrations instead. Some St Andrew’s Day activity for 2022 in Beijing was postponed due to ongoing restrictions, and took place in March 2023.

(a) Burns Night

For young children, learning to read is foundational to their success across the school curriculum and, importantly, is also linked to a wide range of positive outcomes including those of emotional, social and mental wellbeing.

Through different forms of support and guidance, Education Scotland advises on the most effective research-informed approaches to reading, what they are and how to use them. Education Scotland will publish new guidelines and professional learning resources for teachers (PLRs), focussed on early reading, in early Spring 2024.

These resources are designed to promote teachers’ professional knowledge and understanding of early reading as a complex interplay of skills and background factors. In line with other items of guidance relating to Scotland’s curriculum, the resources are being developed within a broader context which seeks to empower schools to adapt their approach to meet the needs of individual learners. In creating the guidance, Education Scotland officials are working alongside teachers and a range of stakeholders with an interest in early reading in order to use their feedback to inform the development process.

Telecommunications policy is Reserved to the UK Government. The Scottish Government does not collect or hold data on access to 5G services across Scotland.

However Ofcom’s mobile coverage checker ( https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/mobile-coverage ) provides a spatial view of this data. Raw coverage data, at local authority and various Parliamentary constituency levels, is available at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/multi-sector-research/infrastructure-research/spring-202