Chamber and committees

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

The Scottish Government has not provided funding to the Rhoda Nina Scott Trust since 2019.

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.

We are currently in the early stages of establishing a Fair Work Task Force for the creative and cultural sector. The first date will be agreed in due course.

We recognise the important role that the Grangemouth refinery plays in meeting current fuel demand in Scotland and we know the wider cluster will be key to meeting fuel demand in the future.

It is our preference that refining should continue for as long as possible and Ministers are considering every realistic option to extend the life of the asset. This would provide the critical time and space for the refinery business to expedite transition opportunities at Grangemouth and protect as many existing jobs as possible.

The Scottish Government has committed to working with operators across the Grangemouth cluster to bring forward new low carbon projects at Grangemouth, in technologies such as CCUS, hydrogen and bio-refining. These projects will take time to be brought forward, however they do offer an opportunity to transition the site and cement the cluster’s role long into the future.

The development and implementation of improvements to the data landscape, including the creation of a central repository for culture sector research and data, is a long-term strategic action which will be delivered in close collaboration with sector and expert partners and is currently in the early co-design stage.

The Scottish Government has not provided funding to Irvine Burns Club since 2019.

I have assumed the chair of the Grangemouth Future Industry Board’s Industrial Just Transition Forum following its meeting on 18 January.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, and the Scottish Government does not hold this information, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

The following table gives the leakage levels as a proportion of the water put into supply since 2007. All values are expressed as Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) except for 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10; Scottish Water switched to MLE reporting in AR11 - AR08, AR09, and AR10 were top down estimates.

SEPA are responsible for prioritising actions to reduce flood risk in Scotland as part of the Flood Risk Management Planning process set out in the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009. The Scottish Government provides funding to local authorities through the general capital grant to support the implementation of these actions. The distribution of this funding is agreed by Ministers and COSLA Leaders based on the recommendations of a joint Scottish Government/COSLA Flood Risk Management Working Group.

This group is currently considering funding and governance arrangements for future programmes taking on board lessons learned from the first programme and current best practice. These arrangements will apply to measures put forward across Scotland including those put forward for Dundee. Recommendations will be put to Ministers and COSLA Leaders via the joint Scottish Government/COSLA officers’ Settlement Distribution Group throughout 2024.

We will continue to work with local authorities and COSLA to ensure value for money and that the schemes taken forward provide the maximum benefit for local communities.