Chamber and committees

The matter of strike action is a for Bòrd na Gidhlig to consider and to ensure that any vital services to the Gaelic community continue to be supported.

Against the backdrop of continued impacts from Covid-19, public spending constraints and the cost of living crisis, we are doing all we can to protect Scotland’s culture and historic environment, to ensure our diverse and world-class cultural scene and rich heritage continue to thrive, delivering on the vision of the Culture Strategy.

The Scottish Government will invest £278m in Scotland’s culture and heritage sector in 2023-24 which will support a range of actions set out in the Culture Strategy. Further information about the breakdown of individual budget lines will be shared in the coming weeks. Additionally, we will publish a refreshed Culture Strategy Action Plan in spring 2023, which will set out how we will continue to deliver on the aims of the Culture Strategy.

The Lockerbie bombing remains the worst terrorist atrocity ever committed on UK soil and the effects continue to be felt around the world. The investigation into this terrible atrocity has been conducted jointly by Scottish and American prosecutors and law enforcement for 34 years. 270 people lost their lives that terrible night and 21 countries lost citizens. It has always been an international investigation and I welcome the significant step taken by the United States in obtaining custody of Mr Masoud.

Having been transferred to US custody, Mr Masoud will stand trial in a United States Court, subject to United States laws. That does not diminish the loss suffered by Scotland and many other countries. The 190 American lives lost that night give the United States of America criminal jurisdiction to prosecute Mr Masoud, just as the scene of this terrible crime in Lockerbie and the lives lost here, gave Scotland jurisdiction to prosecute Mr Al-Megrahi and Mr Fhimah under Scots law at Kamp Zeist.

There are no current criminal proceedings in Scotland against Mr Masud. Scottish prosecutors and Police Scotland are dedicated to supporting the US prosecution, just as American counterparts, with assistance from countries around the world, supported the trial at Kamp Zeist to its successful conclusion in 2001.

In December I travelled to Washington DC where I attended a memorial ceremony and met with the US Deputy Attorney General. We discussed how we can continue to work together to obtain justice for all of the victims and their families, and I assured the Deputy Attorney General of Scotland’s unwavering support in this international effort.

The award winning Great Tapestry of Scotland (GToS) is an excellent example of the Town Centre First Principle (TCFP) in practice. This principle has been embedded in the recently approved National Planning Framework (NPF4), so that future planning decisions will help to guide development to locations that support tourism and regeneration of our towns.

The Scottish Government is also supporting local authorities, businesses, and communities to promote regeneration within towns including through the Place Based Investment, Vacant and Derelict Land and Empowering Communities Programmes. In particular, on 6 February, it was announced that 15 projects, across Scotland, have successfully secured around £10 million funding, from the Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme, to prioritise the reuse of such land as well community regeneration and town centres.

Following the PCS ballot results, Scottish Government officials held regular meetings in the run up to the strike action with Chief Executives of those employers in the Scottish Administration where PCS had a mandate for strike action, including with the Keeper of Registers of Scotland. All employers provided business continuity plans ahead of the strike action, considering the impact of any action on the operation of their services. Registers of Scotland confirmed they had robust contingency plans in place to keep all customer-facing services running, and they would continue to accept applications to the registers they manage and provide a customer support service. Services continued to operate at Registers of Scotland during 1 February 2023.

Architecture and Design Scotland works to help deliver Scottish Ministers’ policies and objectives for the built and natural environment by providing advice, resources and advocacy, and through a programme of projects and initiatives. It does not provide grants or loans to external organisations.

In 2014-15 Architecture and Design Scotland facilitated the Stalled Spaces Scotland project on behalf of Scottish Government which provided funding to local authorities to enable stalled space projects to be delivered with communities. The following table details the local authorities and amounts awarded. Those organisations were required to match fund the award.

Public Library services in Scotland are devolved to local authorities which have a statutory duty to secure the provision of adequate library facilities for all persons resident in their area.

No Scottish Libraries have permanently closed in the last three reporting years. The following table from the Scottish Library and Information Council provides data, compiled by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), capturing the number of service points and net increase / decrease per year between 2009-10 – 2021-22. Information for 2022-23 will be available at the end of the current financial year.

Architecture and Design Scotland originally identified 154 towns to be part of its Climate Action Towns project as set out in the following table.

This is a question for the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland (RoS). She advises me that that, as of 31 January 2023, there are 88,826 dispositions undergoing registration.

RoS received and processed over 655,000 applications in 2022, of which 90% were completed in 20 days.

In the Land Register the legal effect of registration backdates to the date on which the Keeper entered the application onto the application record (the date of receipt) and properties undergoing registration can still be transacted upon in the usual way.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14517 on 7 February 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