Seòmar agus comataidhean

Creative Scotland advertised 22 jobs in 2023. 20 roles were appointed, 1 closed without an offer and 1 closed with interviews taking place in January 2024. 18 were filled in Edinburgh, 2 in Glasgow and 0 outwith Edinburgh/Glasgow.

Whilst all roles have a contractual base location of either Edinburgh or Glasgow, since 2020 all roles at Creative Scotland have the ability of hybrid and remote working. Through this, Creative Scotland have benefitted from opening their talent pool to many regions across Scotland including the Highland and Islands, Perthshire and Ayrshire.

The Affordable Housing Supply Programme is fit for purpose. The UK Government did not inflation-proof their Capital Budget which has resulted in nearly a 10% real terms fall in our UK capital funding between 2023-24 and 2027-28. That means that we cannot deliver on all our capital projects. One of the most difficult choices we have taken is to reduce the funding for our Affordable Housing Supply Programme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-24135 on 16 January 2024. 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 .

The Scottish Government has ambitious plans to make it easier for people to walk, wheel and cycle for everyday journeys, with record levels of investment over this Parliament and significantly ahead of anywhere else in the UK. Our biggest focus is on delivering physical infrastructure on the ground. But we also have important programmes to support people to change behaviours and choose active travel, and to access a range of bikes, including adapted bikes. At present, and over the course of next year, to make sure that people in Scotland get maximum benefit from that investment, Transport Scotland is transforming the delivery models for active travel interventions across the infrastructure, behaviour change and access to bikes programmes. This will see the end of some long-standing programmes, funded on a year by year basis, and a shift towards funding and control moving to local authorities, as the strategic transport authorities for their area, and regional transport partnerships.

Part of the Active Travel transformation process has involved the Smarter Choices Smarter Places programme closing, but behaviour change projects remain a high priority in our Active Travel programme. We are developing a new system of funding for 2024-25, and Local Authorities, Regional Transport Partnerships, and the third sector Active Travel Delivery Partners are all involved in the design of that solution and we continue to see a vital role for our delivery partners in turning our record investment into the transformative change we all want to see.

The Scottish Government is increasing funding to the culture sector by £15.8m next financial year to £196.6m. This is the first step on the route to investing at least £100m more annually in culture and the arts by the financial year 2028-29. In 2025-2026 we aim to provide an additional £25m to the culture sector. This commitment to additional funding despite the challenging budget situation signals our confidence in the Scottish culture sector.

Through this increased investment we want to drive up opportunities for participation in creative pursuits, support the production of new works, and ensure that Scotland’s cultural output has platforms at home and abroad.

We will continue to work with the culture sector to identify barriers to immediate and long-term recovery. The Scottish Government will also continue to do everything within our powers and resources to help those most affected by current economic challenges.

We have been supporting Scottish Prison Services and other partners in delivering an improvement in the contract. This has resulted in some progress, with a slowdown in staff attrition, which is down by 40%. Prisoner Custody Officer (PCO) staffing levels have increased by around 40 officers in the last 3 months with another 20 currently in officer training, with them operationally deployable during January 2024. Steps have also been taken to help reduce future demand for service.

SPS is continuing to monitor the performance of the contract carefully to ensure target thresholds are met, so we can have a level of service which meets the needs of our Justice system.

We are initiating our commitment of up to £500 million to anchor our offshore wind supply chain in Scotland with investment of £67 million in 2024-2025.

This commercial and grant investment will stimulate and support private investment in the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities critical to the growth of our world-leading offshore wind sector.

We have worked with public sector partners to develop a framework which will achieve strategic alignment of public sector investment in offshore renewables supply chain and infrastructure development.

This very much aligns with the approach taken by the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) in developing the Strategic Investment Model (SIM) to move from project-led to sector level investment that better supports growth in port and supply chain capacity and capability.

We will continue to collaborate with public sector partners and engage with industry and other partners as we finalise our approach and we will provide an update in due course.

Our strategic investment will support market certainty, create new jobs, embed innovation, and boost skills to foster a competitive economy, underscoring our determination to maximise the economic benefits from Scotland’s offshore wind potential.

The UK Government did not inflation-proof their Capital Budget which has resulted in a 9.8% real terms fall in our UK capital funding over the medium term between 2023-24 and 2027-28. Scottish Government will invest more than half a billion pounds in affordable housing across Scotland next year, and we will be continuing our funding support for the demand-led Rural and Islands Housing Fund. We will work with partners to continue to deliver more affordable homes across Scotland, the majority of which will be for social rent, including supporting acquisitions of existing properties and the demand led Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23878 on
‎ 8 January 2024. 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 .

The Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) is the National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) for Scotland. Its remit is to promote human rights and, in particular, to encourage best practice in relation to human rights.

The SHRC is statutorily independent and the exercise of its functions is not subject to the direction or control of the Scottish Government. Information about its current programme of work can be sought direct from the SHRC.

The Scottish Government welcomes the SHRC’s investigation and looks forward to the publication of its report.