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The five National Performing Companies are the National Theatre of Scotland, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Ballet, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Scottish Opera.

They each receive direct funding from the Scottish Government and are committed to increasing diversity, including in the recruitment of members to their board.

In February 2020, A Culture Strategy for Scotland was published. One of the aims it sets out under the theme of strengthening culture focusses on working in partnership to increase diversity in the sector, sharing new approaches and codes of practice that ensure skills development and board membership have diversity at their core.

All the NPCs continue to demonstrate their commitment to increasing diversity on their boards.

The board of the National Theatre for Scotland has over recent years made appointments which increase representation of people with disabilities and those of ethnic diversity. The company has published its plan to become an anti-racist organisation , with transparent and ambitious targets set for the next three years, including staff and board representation, programming and audience development.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra assembled a Diversity Committee to undertake a diversity audit following advice from London Music Masters (a charity bringing music to minority communities). They are currently engaging Roger Wilson of Black Lives in Music to lead a piece of work to identify current policy and practice in relation to race equality and diversity objectives within the organisation.

Scottish Ballet is engaged in a partnership with Intercultural Youth Scotland, to address the need for greater diversity throughout the organisation, including on the Board. They are following the guidelines set out by Ballet Black on driving anti-racism within the dance sector. They have also recently engaged with Inc Arts and are beginning to utilise their “Toolkit” programme which is expected to impact on the diversity of Board representation.

The Board of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra has recently established a working group to review progress and consider specific actions and initiatives it could embed across the organisation relating to improving Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). The Working Group is led by the Chief Executive with members drawn from the Board, Senior Management Team and the Orchestra. The Board is currently undertaking an open, advertised recruitment process for up to 2 Lay Directors. Interviews are scheduled to take place in November. A Youth Advisory Council (16-24 year olds) has also recently been established with an initial membership of 19. This aims include to advise the Board on issues and strategies relevant to a younger and increasingly diverse range of audiences and stakeholders.

Scottish Opera have recently maintained the gender balance of their Board. They currently have 7 female and 5 male Directors. They have recently recruited a new board member of Scottish/Chinese heritage. Additionally, they have recently appointed Peridot Partners to assist in their search for trustees of more diverse backgrounds, aiming to add a further new trustee to the Board by mid December 2021.

The £10,000 grant awarded to Voluntary Health Scotland (VHS) to scope the development of the Arts, Culture, Health and Wellbeing Scotland (ACHWS) supported the network to develop an infrastructure, systems and develop a brand identity that would help the network to build their network membership base and their partnerships across the UK.

The grant also supported online events, held in partnership with VHS, such as; Caring, Creativity and Connectedness, The Role of Culture in the Health and Wellbeing of Older People and The Role of Culture in the Health and Wellbeing of Young People. The events promoted knowledge exchange, raised awareness of the network and extended the reach and influence of the network.

Officials from the Scottish Government continue to attend ACHWS meetings to offer support to help build further partnerships across policy and cultural organisations.

Voluntary Health Scotland was provided a one-off grant of £10,000 for the financial year 2019-2020, for the development of the Arts, Culture, Health and Wellbeing Scotland network.

The Scottish Government have allocated £150,000 for the Arts Alive programme for 2021-2022.

In August 2017 Scottish Ministers issued their intention to grant permission for a tennis and golf centre, including hotel and 19 houses, subject to conditions and completion of a legal agreement. On 26th August 2021 the signed legal agreement was submitted to Ministers, meaning the appeal moves closer to a final decision.

Given the passage of time since Ministers indicated their intention to grant permission in 2017, further procedure is necessary before the appeal can be determined. This is to allow parties to submit contributions on any material changes that may have occurred. After that, a final decision will be taken on this planning application appeal.

As this is still a live planning application, it would not be appropriate to comment on the merits of the case.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-02207 on 2 September 2021. 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 .

Afghan families are already being welcomed into Scottish communities under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) for Locally Employed Staff.

In her letter to the Prime Minister of 24 August, the First Minister called for a commitment to a substantial increase in numbers and for more detail about the new Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), including timescales for arrivals and funding to support local authority participation, as well as for wider services which are essential to support people to settle and be able to begin to rebuild their lives.

The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government wrote to the Home Secretary on 1 September and asked the UK Government to provide more detail on eligibility for refugee resettlement under the ACRS. She highlighted that people who may be vulnerable in Afghanistan or the region due to protected characteristics should also be considered for resettlement and called on the UK Government to consider easing the eligibility criteria for family reunion.

On 6 September, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and I met with the UK Government’s Afghan Resettlement Minister, Victoria Atkins, and Lord Greenhalgh, Minister for Building Safety and Communities, as part of a devolved administrations call to discuss Afghan relocation and resettlement. In addition to those who are vulnerable, we asked for consideration to be given to those who already have family settled in the UK and for those with connections to be matched to the same regions, in order to help support integration.

Following the commitment made by the Prime Minister on 18 August that the UK will not return Afghan nationals who have sought asylum in the UK, the First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister on 24 August to urge the Home Office to urgently review any cases which are in the asylum appeals process, or where people have previously been refused asylum.

The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government wrote to the Home Secretary on 1 September. She asked the UK Government to consider easing the eligibility criteria for family reunion to enable more people from Afghanistan (and elsewhere around the world) to join family members in the UK. She also called for asylum applications from Afghan nationals in the UK to be considered quickly and compassionately and pressed the Home Office to urgently review any cases which are in the asylum appeals process or where people have previously been refused asylum on the basis that Kabul is safe.

On 6 September, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and I met with the UK Government’s Afghan Resettlement Minister, Victoria Atkins, and Lord Greenhalgh, Minister for Building Safety and Communities, as part of a devolved administrations call to discuss relocation and resettlement from Afghanistan. During that call we raised our concerns about family reunion and the position of Afghan nationals in the UK asylum system, including those whose applications have been refused, as well as those awaiting an initial decision and those in the appeal process.

Scottish Government has a long-standing record of providing the most generous non-domestic rates regime in the UK and were the first Government in the UK to offer any extension to relief for the retail, hospitality, leisure and aviation sectors for 2021-22.

Decisions on non-domestic rates including the poundage and reliefs are traditionally set out in the Scottish budget alongside other government priorities. The Programme for Government recognises the importance of a fair, just and sustainable recovery with local business and communities at the heart, and future spend will be determined as part of the Scottish budget process.

The main regulated, compulsory carbon pricing market in the UK is the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Agriculture and land-use emissions are not covered by the current scope of the UK ETS. The carbon in Scotland’s deep peat soils is however being traded through the peatland code. This is a voluntary certification mechanism which provides assurances to carbon market buyers that the climate benefits from restoring peat are real, quantifiable, additional and permanent.

Although there is no soil carbon code in place at present, there is UK-wide interest in developing a soil carbon code. This has been most recently addressed by a UK Soil Association conference on 14th July 2021 but this has not yet been translated into a co-ordinated programme of work.