Question reference: S5W-36008
- Asked by: Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 11 March 2021
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Current status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work of the Ministerial Taskforce for Population.
Answer
Today, the Scottish Government’s Ministerial Population Taskforce has published Scotland’s first ever national Population Strategy. This document is called ‘A Scotland for the Future: The Challenges and Opportunities of Scotland’s Changing Population’ and can be found here.
Scotland is facing a number of demographic challenges. From falling birth rates, to increasingly ageing population to spatial imbalance across our local authorities. The Ministerial Population Taskforce was established to tackle these large-scale issues.
Our strategy outlines why addressing each of these challenges is vital to the long-term sustainability of our economy, public services, and communities as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
It is clear there is no quick fix to these complex issues. This strategy is the beginning of a conversation about population sustainability as a ‘national challenge’ for Scotland.
As a first step, the Strategy sets out 36 initial actions, including a series of next steps for the Scottish Government’s Population Programme to engage the public, other political parties and other partners from both the public and private sector.