Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-01744 on 11 January 2023. The answer to the Oral Question can be found at: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-11-01-2023?meeting=14081 .

The Scottish Government recognises the difficult situation that the culture sector is facing currently.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-01744 11 January 2023. The answer to the Oral Question can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-11-01-2023?meeting=14081 .

The Scottish Government remains keen to conclude some work on multiyear funding, and will discuss this with Creative Scotland, even if economic uncertainty means that the figures for later years can be at most only indicative. The outlook, following the recent Autumn Statement by the UK Government, is even more challenging for the later years of the Resource Spending Review period.

The Scottish Government is using a range of interventions across its policies to advance the Race Equality Framework and human rights for all minority ethnic groups, one of which is the Interim Governance Group.

The Interim Governance Group is a short-life working group with a specific remit to provide advice and feedback to Scottish Ministers on establishing long-term anti-racist infrastructure. Its membership includes those with experiences of intersecting marginalisation(s) and the realities of systemic racism and expertise in tackling it. Individuals were also appointed on the basis of having extensive knowledge and/or experience of policy making in Scotland, and design and implementation of policy/systems. More information on the remit and membership of the group is available here: https://www.gov.scot/groups/interim-governance-group-to-develop-national-anti-racist-infrastructure/

The intention is that the work of the IGG will support the development of improved infrastructure and accountability that has a positive impact on the lives of all racialised minority communities. Racialised outcomes are not experienced uniformly, and effective interventions need to take specific experiences into account. In Scotland, this includes important disparities impacting Black/minority ethnic groups.

Ensuring that communities are engaged with policy developments, including in long-term oversight and governance, is of utmost importance, and we are looking to explore mechanisms and routes to achieve that in the best way possible. Policy areas focussed on anti-racism and race equality are actively engaging with a range of stakeholders and communities as part of their work. The Interim Governance Group has commissioned a programme of community engagement, to both disseminate information about forthcoming anti-racist policy infrastructure and to gather community members' and organisations' perspectives on how it can work best to deliver genuine change-making policy and practice in Scotland.

The Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme in Scotland: statistics, in December 2022, explains that the Scottish Government are currently conducting a data reconciliation project to gather updates on the checking, matching and availability statuses of expressions of interest shared with local authorities. This record level information will allow us to more confidently calculate the values estimated from the local authority survey. An update on this project will be provided in due course. As a result of this exercise, we have reviewed the Local Authority Survey. The survey has been reduced and no longer includes questions on expressions of interest, private hosts, properties, property and disclosure checks.

The Improvement Service report on Local Authority Instrumental Music Services sets out that 41,594 pupils received instrumental music tuition in academic year 2020-21, this is 6% of the total number of school pupils. The full report is available here : Instrumental Music Services: Results from the IMS Survey 2022 (improvementservice.org.uk) .

The Scottish Government recognises that outcomes are not uniform across all communities, and effective interventions need to take specific experiences into account. This understanding must be evidence based and we are clear that a “one size fits all” singular approach will fail to deliver.

In its approach to developing and embedding race equality and anti-racism, the Scottish Government is clear that significant inequalities remain in many areas of life for people from minority ethnic communities. We regard the causes of these inequalities as systemic and deep-rooted, and that reversing them will take time and effort, as well as a Scottish Government commitment that is maintained going into the future.

We acknowledge the existence of formal and informal structural, institutional and cultural processes that disadvantage minority ethnic and migrant groups within Scotland. Our approach aligns with the equality legislation that is in place in Scotland, and takes a human rights and rights-based perspective that is committed to involving people with expertise and lived experience of issues in the design and development of policy. Scottish Government policy draws from, and is informed by, a range of different theories and frameworks, including critical race theory, to take action that is effective in advancing race equality.

We are not able to provide this information due to commercial sensitivity however a total of 14 suppliers were in attendance at the meeting.

We are deeply concerned about these reports. The only nutrition suitable for babies under 6 months is breastmilk or first stage formula milk.

Parents should be advised to speak to a health professional for further advice and support for breastfeeding or safe formula feeding, and can be directed to their local authority for crisis funding in an emergency. Food banks are not a safe, secure or sustainable route to accessing infant formula milk.

We continue to work with partners to ensure that our financial supports, such as Best Start Foods, Best Start Grants and the Scottish Child Payment, are maximising the support available for families to live dignified lives and meet their basic needs. It is crucial that families follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to make up baby’s formula feeds safely. We have adapted existing information for safe formula feeding on our Formula feeding | Parent Club website and are promoting this through our social media channels.

The Scottish Government will give full consideration to the case for establishing a register of quarries as part of the work underway to develop plans for a devolved replacement for the UK Aggregates Levy.

The Scottish Government has not allocated funding nor spent any money on this.