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I have asked Alison Byrne OBE, Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland (NRS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

NRS’ function is to collect, preserve and produce information about Scotland's people and history and make it available to inform current and future generations. Our services including holding Scotland’s National Archives, one of 5 National Collections in Scotland, the registration of vital events (births, deaths, marriages etc) and the production of population and demographic statistics, including taking the decennial Census of Scotland’s people.

NRS is committed to improving its services and putting the needs of our customers at the heart of everything we do. Recent improvements include:

In 2024, NRS launched our refreshed and modernised Scotland’s People website and recently refreshed the corporate website. This improves online access to public records, archives and statistics, together with a modernised Digital Archive Search Room to provide a dedicated space for researchers to access digitised archival records.

An increasing number of birth and death registrations are now carried out remotely following implementation of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022.

NRS has launched a new and innovative interactive online mapping tool and Flexible Table Builder tool allowing users to access detailed Census 2022 data and combine information from different topics like religion, health or education down to neighbourhood level. This allows all users to utilise the information for their defined analysis alongside our continued delivery of all of our high quality demographic statistics in line with UK standards and through enhancement of our statistical services.

As records are increasingly created and held in digital form, NRS is scaling up its capability in order to ensure that it can continue to preserve and make available future additions to the national archive in ‘born-digital’ form.

NRS has for some years, provided a web continuity and web archiving service. This takes regular snapshots of key public authority websites, supporting business continuity for public bodies as well as providing valuable historical information for public transparency and research purposes.

I have asked Alison Byrne OBE, Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland (NRS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Access to NRS Services is set out in our Public Access Policy - National Records of Scotland (NRS) .

For the range of services delivered by NRS, assessments including the EQIA, Island Communities Impact Assessment and Digital Scotland Service Standard Assessment are undertaken at the point of service change and improvement to help improve accessibility for citizens across all communities.

Registers of Scotland is a non-Ministerial Public Body answerable to the Scottish Parliament.

RoS is predominantly funded by the fees which it charges for the services it provides. In FY 23-24 RoS’s income from fees was £94.6m.

Beyond that RoS are currently allocated a capital (CDEL) budget each year, a budget to cover non-cash costs such as depreciation (RDEL) and a budget to cover forecast movements in accounting provisions (AME).

During 23-24 these three budget lines totalled £11.2m, which is 10.7% of RoS’s total expenditure of £104.8m.

Allocating spectrum and assessing appropriate levels of local content is the responsibility of Ofcom. While spectrum regulation is not a devolved matter, the Scottish Government maintains a close interest in stakeholder and audience views in relation to reception and spectrum allocation because of the wider implications for the economic, creative and cultural sectors in Scotland.

We continue to set out to Ofcom and the UK Government that maintaining and developing a radio network in Scotland that meets the specific needs for both urban and rural areas across the country, is key to ensuring audiences in Scotland are kept informed and entertained, and we will continue to do so. Our view remains that it is essential that local voices and coverage of local issues are protected and enhanced, and that the regulatory framework should allow for clear and effective regulation of the requirements.

Fundamentally, we believe that broadcasting should be devolved so that the decisions that impact audiences and the creative industries in Scotland can be determined by the Scottish public through the Scottish Parliament.

I have asked Alison Byrne OBE, Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland (NRS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

A programme of audit and other service based assurance reviews (including Digital Major Programme, Procurement, Cyber, Information management and archive assurance) are undertaken on a rolling basis across NRS services and functions with recommendations implemented to ensure efficient and effective delivery operations. The organisation also receives independent challenge through an Audit and Risk Committee comprised of Non-Executive Directors.

The proportion of Scottish Government marketing spend that has been allocated to community radio in each of the previous five years is as follows:

Advertising effectiveness is evaluated in a range of ways. Firstly, figures are provided to show the reach (how many people we reached) and frequency (how many times we reached them), both overall and by advertising channel. These figures are calculated by the Scottish Government’s independent media planning and buying agencies, using audited sector data where available.

I have asked Alison Byrne OBE, Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland (NRS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

NRS regularly releases digitised records and archives through the Scotland’s People website, with the numbers reported on Page 22 of our Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24.

NRS continues to digitise, as standard, any paper birth death and marriage records submitted by local registrars. Imaging is also carried out on demand for stakeholders and customers.

To date, £32.2m funding committed through the Memorandum of Understanding has been spent. A breakdown of this figure, along with explanatory detail, is provided below:

There is no evidence to show that the reduction in Foundation Year 2 doctors entering specialty training has had an impact on the availability of medical professionals. Progression data from the General Medical Council shows that 90% of trainees have obtained a specialty training post in the UK within three years of completing the Foundation Programme.