Chamber and committees

The 2021-2022 Programme for Government includes a commitment to revise the Creative Industries Policy Statement to articulate the priorities for the future development of the creative industries, in light of the impacts of EU Exit and the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are currently in the initial stages of scoping this commitment and we expect to be able to share more information on this work in the coming months.

There have been four official meetings with Ministers since May 2021.

On 6 August 2021 Jenny Gilruth had an introductory visit to V&A Dundee following her appointment as Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development.

On 28 January 2022 Angus Robertson visited V&A Dundee in his role as Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture.

On 23 November 2022 Neil Gray visited V&A Dundee in his role as Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development and Minister with special responsibility for refugees from Ukraine.

On 31 March 2023 the Deputy First Minister Shona Robison attended the launch of the Tartan exhibition.

As core funded organisation, officials meet regularly with V&A Dundee as part of normal grant management processes.

Scottish Government officials have held quarterly meetings with Scotland’s National Centre for Languages (SCILT) since May 2021 as part of the grant management process. Officials have also met with staff from SCILT to discuss projects on an ad-hoc basis.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19744 on‎ 17 July 2023. 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

The Scottish Government meets with the Culture Conveners from local government to discuss ways of working together, in line with shared priorities for the Culture sector.

There have been four meetings of the Culture Conveners since the publication of our Culture Strategy. These took place in November 2020, March 2021, December 2021, and January 2023.

The next Culture Conveners meeting is scheduled to take place with myself in early autumn.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19744 on‎ 17 July 2023. 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

The Scottish Government is providing support to primary care services in their implementation of Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Standard 7 through three routes:

The first is through our ringfencing £30m as set out in our Cross Government Plan, over the course of 3 years, from the Scottish Government’s Enhanced Services Allocation to NHS territorial Boards, from April 2023, in order to accelerate the adoption of Enhanced Services for drug services across Scotland. Local areas will be asked to prioritise use of this funding to improve outcomes for people who use drugs.

The second is through our commissioning Public Health Scotland to consider and develop a reference suite of best practice models that should provide local areas with guidance on how they might adapt primary care delivery to integrate drugs services in a way that suits local needs. The material will be derived from a critical examination of international and domestic experience of drug service provision in primary care settings, including through direct consultation with delivery partners on the ground and with our Drugs Policy Clinical Advisory Group, providing insight into a breadth of applicable scenarios and solutions.

The third is through targeted support and intervention from Public Health Scotland’s MAT Implementation Support Team (MIST), who work closely with local areas to evaluate and progress implementation across the range of MAT Standards 1-10.

The timeline for MAT standard 7 ‘Primary Care’ has not been amended this year – it remains at full implementation to be completed by April 2025 as per the 2022 National Benchmarking report published by Public Health Scotland.

The MAT Implementation Support Team (MIST team) within Public Health Scotland provide support to local areas to engage with their primary care providers and will continue to do so.

The Local Partnership Forum North last met on 15 June to discuss a range of measures to enhance safety across the north of Scotland. Since then a range of additional targeted safety camera resources have been deployed at locations across the region, including the North Coast 500, to encourage good driver behaviour and enhanced levels of speed limit compliance.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19744 on‎ 17 July 2023. 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