Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Marine Directorate - Licensing Operations Team of the Scottish Government has not granted any seal licences for imperative reasons of overriding public interest, including those of a social or economic nature under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010. No seals have been killed or taken under this licensable purpose.

Support for care experienced young people when they become parents is threaded through a number of Scottish Government policies.

These include the Family Nurse Partnership where first time parents aged under 20 are supported by family nurses from early pregnancy until their child’s second birthday. This intensive, relational based support helps address social and economic factors, such as housing stability, welfare, education, employment and money advice. Over the next few years the Scottish Government has committed to extending this programme to young parents aged 21 and under, and to target parents aged 25 and under who have experience of care..

Through Early Learning and Childcare, parents with experience of care can access up to 1140 hours a year of funded childcare for their child from their second birthday. There is evidence of the particular benefits of high quality ELC for children from disadvantaged circumstances, which includes children with experience of care or whose parents have experience of care. We are continuing to work with local authorities to maximise uptake of the existing offer of funded ELC for eligible two-year-olds.

Support is also available through the five family payments: the Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Foods and the three Best Start Grants. These payments could be worth around £10,000 by the time an eligible child turns six years old.

As part of our commitment to Keeping the Promise, we will continue to develop and invest in policies to support care experienced parents.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, there is currently a delay of up to four months in allocating some complaints to a complaints reviewer at the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman (SPSO). The SPSO have put in place and are applying a number of measures to reduce the age and number of unallocated cases, and ensure urgent cases are identified and actioned. The SPSO has also received funding from the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body to recruit extra temporary staff in order to assist with the backlog. This delay has reduced from 11 months in 2022 and will continue to drop thanks to extra capacity and positive improvements in how the SPSO deliver their service which should mitigate any impact this may have on public services.

The current Leadership group of the Scottish AI Alliance is made up as follows –

Chair:

Catriona Campbell, Client Technology & Innovation Officer, EY UK&I (appointed as Chair - March 2023, appointed as Leadership Group member May 2021)

Senior Responsible Officers for Alliance partners:

Tom Wilkinson, Chief Data Officer, Scottish Government

Brian Hills, CEO, The Data Lab

Leadership Group Members:

Leadership Group Recruitment Process Details

The Leadership Group was recruited by a public application process, initially in April/May 2021. Four Leadership Group members stepped down at the end of their initial 2 year term in March 2023 whereas the remaining 7 members extended their tenure for another term. Four new Leadership Group members were appointed in March 2023. The application window for the most recent recruitment process was open from 7 November 2022 to 19 January 2023. We advised that we sought representation from a range of sectors and backgrounds, and would welcome perspectives from within Scotland and beyond. Four positions on the group were advertised and we received thirty two applications.

The assessment panel consisted of –

• Gillian Docherty OBE, CCO University of Strathclyde and inaugural Chair of the Scottish AI Alliance
• Tom Wilkinson, Chief Data Officer, Scottish Government
• Jeremy Darot, Head of AI, Scottish Government
• Steph Wright, Head of Scottish AI Alliance, The Data Lab

Nine of the thirty two applications were regarded as of a suitable high level to move to the next stage and these were considered by the panel in a review meeting on 26 th January, where the final recommendations were made. Given the level of consensus on the appointments it was agreed that no further assessment was required and the successful candidates were offered the posts.

Chair Recruitment

Due to the inaugural Chair, Gillian Docherty OBE, indicating that she will step down from the role at the end of her two year term in March 2023, the Alliance began discussions around about potential chair candidates in October 2022. They identified a shortlist of people to approach.

In January 2023 there were a number of informal interviews with the shortlisted candidates, and the unanimous decision of the panel was that Catriona Campbell was the most suitable candidate. She accepted the role and was announced in post on 28 th March 2023 by then Minister Ivan McKee at the Scottish AI Summit 2023.

The cost for the Scottish AI Playbook build to date has been £17,820 including VAT.

Scotland’s National Innovation Strategy will be published on Friday 9 June, setting out our 10 year vision to make Scotland one of the most innovative small nations in the world.

The Strategy has been developed by the Scottish Government in close collaboration with industry, academia and the wider innovation ecosystem.

Council tax is a local tax, set and collected by each local authority, with every council financially and administratively accountable to their electorate. It is important that local authorities retain the tools to enforce the payment of council tax by those who have the means to pay but choose not to do so, whilst the Council Tax Reduction Scheme ensures nobody has to meet a council tax liability they cannot be expected to afford.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that the views of the private, voluntary and childminding sector are heard and reflected in national policy. For example, the Scottish Government consulted on different funding models before the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) expansion to 1140 hours.

I hosted a meeting with sector representatives on Tuesday 18 April to hear about challenges and opportunities for the sector, and I will be undertaking a programme of engagement over the next few months.

Senior Scottish Government officials also engage regularly with the sector, including through the Childcare Sector Working Group and the National Childcare Providers Forum.

The Scottish Government and COSLA have engaged with providers as part of the work on the joint review of the process for setting Sustainable Rates in 2022-23. I will consider the findings of this review carefully when it reports this summer.

The National Islands Plan provides a framework for action in order to meaningfully improve outcomes for island communities. The Plan sets out 13 Strategic Objectives and over 100 commitments, which must be delivered over the five year lifetime of the Plan. Strategic Objective 11 sets out a range of commitments to support arts, culture and language. 

Highlands and Islands Enterprise

Requests for Highlands and Islands Enterprise support are considered on a case-by-case basis. The Highlands and Islands Enterprise Island area teams review any requests around music festivals and consider what support may be possible or appropriate, such as advice, signposting or financial. Highlands and Islands Enterprise Creative Industries Team is also available to provide additional advice and signposting to potential support sources, and introductions to other regional events and businesses who may be relevant to an applicant. 

As well as the support on offer through area offices, XpoNorth Digital is a mechanism for Highlands and Islands Enterprise to provide specialist advice to Creative enterprises and continues to offer support and advice around areas like new business models, remote participation and digital opening up new additional revenue streams.

In the main, Highlands and Islands Enterprise support is not directly attributable to festivals but is more broadly aimed at building resilience and year round viability for organisations that will include festivals, exhibitions or events into a portfolio of activations.

Examples of where Highlands and Islands Enterprise has contributed support towards festivals and events with significant music elements are listed in the following table. 

Creative Scotland

Creative Scotland funding supports festivals in all island local authority areas, as well as islands within the Argyll & Bute and Highland local authority areas. Other island festivals supported by Creative Scotland may include programme strands of music, but are not included in this response.

Creative Scotland has provided £441,456  to organisations delivering music festivals in island communities through their Open Fund and Regular Funding Network, including the Regular Funded Organisation (RFO) of the St Magnus Festival, as listed in the table below. These set out the award made to the most recent iteration of the festival (either in 2022 or 2023). These exclude details of some scheduled 2023 festivals as they are currently under assessment.

In addition, Creative Scotland provided £387,351 to organisations through the Recovery Fund for Cultural Organisations (RFCO) and Culture Organisations and Venue Recovery (COVR) as listed in the table below. The RFCO fund (March 2022) is to enable cultural organisations, working primarily for public benefit, to rebuild and create opportunities to increase their financial resilience after the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVR fund was to support organisations that are vital to the cultural life of Scotland and require funding to help prevent insolvency and/or significant job losses due to the impact of COVID-19. There were two rounds of this fund, COVR1 in September 2021 and COVR2 in June 2021, the latter covering the period 1 April 2021 – 30 September 2021. Organisations that were awarded funding in the first round were able to apply in round 2.

In addition, Creative Scotland supports the following organisations based in island locations through Regular Funding (- NB St Magnus International Festival is included in the table).

Fèisean nan Gàidheal supports 47 tuition-based Fèisean that offer tuition in traditional Gaelic arts to young people across Scotland – this includes island based Fèis, as well as on the mainland. Fèisean nan Gàidheal also deliver the Blas Festival in partnership with The Highland Council. Shetland Arts and An Lanntair deliver annual programmes which include music festivals and festivals which have strong music elements e.g. Shetland Folk Frenzy and Hebridean Dark Skies Festival, respectively. Regularly Funded Organisations may also support events held by other independent organisations. 

EventScotland

EventScotland’s existing funding programmes offer opportunities for all event organisers, including music festivals, across Scotland to apply for funding on the basis that it meets the programme criteria. Events are assessed on their merits, and EventScotland will look at ways the event will create a positive impact for the host region and Scotland as a whole. Events are assessed in terms of their viability and event management experience as well as the five impact areas; Economic – Tourism and Business; Brand, Identity and Reputation; Media and Profile; Social and Cultural and Environmental Sustainability. 

In 2022, EventScotland supported 7 events (either music or with significant music elements) located in Island communities from its existing National and International programmes. These included Shetland Folk Festival, Orkney Food Festival, St Magnus International Festival, Tiree Music Festival, HebCelt, BWA Tiree Wave Classic and The Islay Festival.

In 2023, EventScotland is supporting Tall Ships in Lerwick as part of a portfolio of sporting and cultural events taking place across Scotland in 2023. The event has a music strand as part of a varied programme.

In addition to Tall Ships, EventScotland is supporting the following island music events in 2023: HebCelt, Tiree Music Festival, and the 40th Orkney Folk Festival.

EventScotland/ VisitScotland also supports The List Magazine in the creation of the consumer-facing ‘Guide to Scotland’s Festivals’ which has a music genre included.

Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022

The most recent Themed Year, Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022, engaged on a wide range of issues including culture, tourism, heritage, equality, literacy, creative industries and events.

21 events and festivals (many of which included music or had significant music elements) were supported through the £600k Year of Stories Open Events Fund. Supported events on Scotland’s islands included SEALL’s An Tinne with events across the Isle of Skye, Map of Stories events in Orkney and North Uist, Songs from the Last Page’s touring event on Skye and Seanachas – a series of events presented to celebrate the Year by An Lanntair in Stornoway.

The Scottish Government has supported 180 community-centred projects with £732k of partnership funding delivered through the 2022 Community Stories Fund, delivered in partnership with VisitScotland and Museums Galleries Scotland with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Supported events (either music or with significant music elements) included ‘Tìr Ìseal nan Òran (Tiree: Low Land of Song)’ which took place on Tiree, ‘Cliabh An T-Shenachais - The Story Creel’ which was delivered on Mull and Iona, ‘Sgeulaichean Siarach’ and ‘Ri tac an teine’ which both took place on Lewis, and ‘Object Stories’ and ‘Four Corners’ which both took place on Uist, Events took place across Orkney, including ‘Orkney, Scotland and Norway: stories in music and verse’.

Dandelion

During 2022 Unboxed was a major UK-wide programme celebrating creativity and innovation, featuring ten large-scale commissioned projects designed to reach millions on-line and in person, bring people together and showcase creativity across the Four Nations.

The Scottish Government stands with the international community in deep concern over the spiralling violence in Sudan.

We welcome the initial £5 million in life-saving aid announced by the UK Government but more must be done.

The Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, Europe and External Affairs has written to the Foreign Secretary to raise a number of issues in relation to the situation in Sudan. This included a call for everything possible to be done to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people in need. The content of this letter is available here: Protecting those fleeing violence in Sudan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .