Chamber and committees

As set out in my response to the question S6W-22545, the contents of the report are now being considered by Transport Scotland. The report will be published once that process has been completed.

There is no quick fix for the challenges leading to depopulation and the Scottish Government is committed to delivering, through its Addressing Depopulation Action Plan, a range of actions which are pragmatic, targeted, and affordable, and respond to what we have heard from communities and stakeholders during policy engagement and development.

The Addressing Depopulation Action Plan will be published shortly, and will ensure that within a challenging budget environment we are able to maximise the impact that our interventions can have in supporting the sustainability of communities affected by population decline.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-24402 on‎ 19 January 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

We have committed to developing a ‘Percentage for the Arts’ scheme in ‘A Culture Strategy for Scotland: Action Plan’. We are in the initial stages of scoping this commitment and we will share more information on progress in due course.

The Cultural Value Summit will take place in 2024. We expect to announce the date shortly.

The Scottish Government provides annual funding towards the Public Library Improvement Fund (PLIF), administered by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC), to enable libraries to undertake a wide range of pioneering initiatives within communities.

The following table provides a breakdown of the PLIF funding allocated to libraries since 2013-14.

We are in the initial stages of scoping the joint Scottish Government and COSLA Culture Partnership Agreement, which will require extensive collaboration with COSLA.

We will be able to share more information on this work in the months following the Cultural Value Summit, which will take place in 2024.

The Culture and Creativity in Learning Group will support the delivery of the actions in the ‘Culture Strategy for Scotland: Action Plan’, published in December 2023.

We are working closely with the Culture and Creativity in Learning Group in early 2024 to develop a shared workplan.

Further to my answer to S6W-22701, there have now been five meetings of the Culture Conveners since the publication of our 2020 Culture Strategy. These took place in November 2020, March 2021, December 2021, January 2023 and September 2023.

The next Culture Conveners meeting will take place before the end of summer 2024.

As outlined in the recently published ‘Culture Strategy for Scotland: Action Plan’, we will continue to work with Creative Scotland, and stakeholders from across the sector, to scope the youth arts strategy which will follow ‘Time to Shine’.

This strategy will be centred on embedding children and young people’s rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) principles, including the voices of children and young people at its core.