Seòmar agus comataidhean

Scotland Week 2014 was the most successful programme to date. I travelled to Canada and the United States as part of Scotland Week 2014 to carry out an extensive programme of business engagements with top US and Canadian companies, developing both new and existing relationships.

The overall purpose of this year’s Scotland Week was to encourage economic investment and secure jobs for Scotland; promote VisitScotland’s Homecoming 2014 tourism campaign; and engage with a number of prestigious global institutions and key influencers to demonstrate that Scotland is open for business, promote strength and competiveness of Scotland’s key sectors.

Business engagements during my Canada visit included meetings to reaffirm Government support of expanded investment in Scotland and further develop relationships between Canadian companies and Scottish businesses. While in San Francisco, my business engagements highlighted entrepreneurship in Scotland, with a meeting at Stanford University underscoring the extensive collaboration between Stanford and Scottish universities exploring photonics and medicine. I also conducted a roundtable event at the Northern California World Trade Center with a focus on renewable energy and Scotland’s economic strength. A business meeting with Hewlett Packard underscored the Scottish Government’s
long-standing commitment to HP as a strong economic partner.

I conducted several courtesy meetings with provincial officials while in Canada, including the Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier for Intergovernmental Affairs and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, to discuss mutually beneficial links between Scotland and Canada at the provincial level.
I met with the Deputy Mayor of Vancouver to formulate stronger ties between Scotland and the City of Vancouver.

My visit to Canada included several cultural engagements, including a visit to the Vancouver Art Gallery which highlighted the gallery’s Scottish connections, including to the Edinburgh International Art Festival, and its’ Myfanwy Macleod exhibition. I was also the Guest of Honour at the Victoria Highland Games Association Tartan Day Celebration and was photographed with iconic bagpipes, which will form part of the National Museums of Scotland Commonwealth exhibition, at the British Columbia legislature.

In San Francisco, I visited Muir Woods and planted a Douglas fir sapling to celebrate Scottish-American connections through John Muir, the father of American national parks; Homecoming 2014; and the John Muir Festival. I also visited the John Muir National Historic Site to unveil a plaque and met with representatives of the Sierra Club, an environmental conservation group.

In addition, I spoke at Simon Fraser University’s Scottish Studies Centre, discussing the Year of Homecoming, Scotland’s future, and Canada’s appreciation of Scotland’s rich cultural heritage.

I hosted a reception in partnership with the Scottish Canadian Business Association of British Columbia for key stakeholders in Vancouver to underscore Scotland’s investment and economic opportunities. Similarly, in San Francisco, I hosted a Team Scotland reception to promote the strength and competitiveness of Scotland’s key sectors, encourage tourism to Scotland, and highlight Homecoming 2014.

National Museums Scotland has concluded a remuneration review for employees of National Museums Scotland Enterprises (NMSE) which started in the autumn 2013. Since its establishment in 1998, NMSE staff have historically not been subject to the Scottish Public Sector Pay Policy. The review considered wider conditions of employment in the commercial and retail sector as well as in similar organisations. It has delivered a number of improvements to terms and conditions for some NMSE employees. This includes the payment of at least the Scottish living wage to all employees. Changes will be back-dated to 1 April 2014.

A community-based approach is central to our work to tackle sectarianism. We are investing £9 million over three years to tackle sectarianism, and this includes £7.5 million to deliver 81 community-based projects over this period. We firmly believe that communities themselves need to be active participants in tackling the social issues they experience to make all of our communities safer and stronger places to live.

I welcome the comments of the UK Minister of State for Pensions. This is a clear confirmation that, following a vote for independence, the state pension will continue to be paid as it is now, on time and in full, and that all entitlements built up by individuals will be protected.

These comments reaffirm the view given in an earlier letter sent by the Department for Work and Pensions, confirming that pensions would be continue to be paid as now in an independent Scotland.

None of this should be surprising considering that social protection spending, which covers welfare and pensions spending, has been consistently more affordable in Scotland than in the UK as a whole.

Dr Alasdair Allan, Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland’s Languages, wrote to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in May 2013, setting out the progress made to encourage women to study STEM subjects and to improve the retention of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEM) professions. This requires a strategic approach as the issues apply across many sectors other than STEM alone. This strategic approach is guided by the Strategic Group for Women and Work, chaired by Angela Constance. Apart from addressing equality issues across sectors specific progress has been made in the STEM sector.

£600,000 funding was announced for the Scottish Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, securing delivery of their work to 2015. Their work has direct impact with individuals and organisations by addressing skills shortages, increasing the pool of qualified, skilled staff, raising awareness of the issues women face and increasing the profile of women in STEM careers.

The Scottish university sector has fully committed to increasing the diversity of the research workforce. Through outcome agreements with the Scottish Funding Council all the research intensive Scottish universities have agreed to seek awards under the Athena Swan charter, which recognises commitment to advancing women's careers in STEM in higher education.

Membership of Athena SWAN by Scottish Higher Education Institutes has increased from 4 in 2010 to 14. Eight of the universities have already been awarded Bronze Awards. A further three departments have achieved silver awards and the University of Edinburgh, School of Chemistry achieved a Gold Award, the second of only four schools in the UK to do this.

At the Women’s Employment Summit in September 2012 the First Minister announced the CareerWise fund, which is a £250,000 fund to encourage girls and young women to consider careers in science, engineering and technology.

CareerWise works in partnership with organisations to give female undergraduates and school pupils experience of working in the computer science, engineering and science sectors. CareerWise has secured over 40 paid student placements in a variety of organisations across Scotland this year alongside securing school placements for pupils across a number of schools and local authority areas.

Make Young People Your Business is the Scottish Government’s campaign to persuade employers across Scotland of the business case for recruiting and growing young talent. During the week 7 to 14 March 2014 Ministerial engagement was around the theme of Make Young People Your Business in the Digital/ICT sector, with a particular focus on attracting more young women into the sector.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) has today announced that it intends to focus on planning for a census in 2021 which will be primarily online, while offering alternative modes of completion where necessary. It also aims to make best use of technology and administrative data in its design, building on the online approach used successfully in the 2011 census.

This follows on from the Beyond 2011 programme of work in Scotland to review the options for providing population statistics. The review focused on two options:

an online census option carried out every 10 years supplemented by the use of administrative data to produce annual population estimates in intervening years.

an administrative data option using administrative data already held by government and annual surveys.

The decision to focus plans on a census in 2021 in Scotland was based on a variety of evidence, including results from research, stakeholder engagement, a user consultation and international experience. A final decision will be taken in 2016 on the basis of the business case.

A programme of consultation and engagement will continue by NRS to understand user requirements and shape the design of the 2021 census. The findings from Beyond 2011 to date will be incorporated into the programme of work.

Further research will be carried out to enable greater use of administrative data and surveys in the future.

For further information please go to the new Census 2021 section on the NRS website.

I am pleased to announce today that I am publishing Our Place in Time, the first ever strategy for Scotland’s historic environment. This also coincides with the publication of the Historic Environment Scotland Bill. The Bill is available on the Scottish Parliament website from today.

The strategy sets out the future direction and ambitions for Scotland’s historic environment - a vision which can be shared by everyone across Scotland. The development of the strategy follows a long period of intensive stakeholder discussion and engagement. I would like to thank all participants for their energy, expertise and enthusiasm which has allowed us to develop this ground-breaking approach. For the first time, Scotland will have an overarching strategy for the whole of our historic environment which will deliver real public benefits. It provides a high level framework for all parts of the sector and beyond to work together to deliver positive outcomes for Scotland’s historic environment.

The strategy also sets the context for the establishment of Historic Environment Scotland by bringing Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland together. Historic Environment Scotland will take a lead role in delivering the new strategy, with a strong emphasis on its enabling role and its ability to lead effective partnerships with organisations across the sector. The Bill will bring together the existing functions of the two organisations and place them in statute, to sustain the skills and professional expertise of both bodies for the long term. If the Bill is successful in receiving the approval of Parliament and Royal Assent, the body will take up its responsibilities in 2015.

Today marks an important step towards meeting our ambition to ensure that our heritage is collectively celebrated, valued, nurtured and supported across the public, private and third sectors. It is an exciting and important time for the protection and promotion of the historic environment and I am pleased to again restate this government’s commitment to that end.