Question S4W-12342: Dave Thompson, Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 17/01/2013

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Creative Scotland on developing support for artistic and creative activities using the Scots language, what action it takes to support a joint working approach between Creative Scotland, the Scots Language Centre and Scottish Language Dictionaries in developing support for the Scots language, and  what action it has taken to strengthen the role of (a) the Scots Language Centre and (b) Scottish Language Dictionaries as national agencies for developing Scots language (i) policy and (ii) projects in light of the recommendations in the Report of the Ministerial Working Group on the Scots Language. 

Answered by Alasdair Allan (29/01/2013): Scottish Ministers and Scottish Government officials have met recently with Creative Scotland to discuss the role of Creative Scotland in supporting and promoting the Scots language. Discussions have been positive and Creative Scotland has provided a paper to Ministers setting out their vision for Scots. Following these discussions, Creative Scotland will develop the paper further and it will inform the development of their policy for the Scots language.

The Scottish Government is supporting and facilitating close working between Creative Scotland and Scots bodies where possible. At the request of the Scottish Government, Creative Scotland is taking forward the Scots Language Working Group recommendation that a Scots Scrievar be appointed. Ministers have requested that they consult closely with Scots language interests, including the Scots Language Centre and Scottish Language Dictionaries.

The Scottish Government assumed responsibility for direct funding of Scottish Language Dictionaries (SLD) and the Scots Language Centre (SLC) in 2009. Since then the Scottish Government has taken a number of steps to strengthen the roles of the SLC and SLD. In addition to the project with Creative Scotland, mentioned above, SLD and SLC have, at the request of the Scottish Government, been involved in close working with bodies such as Education Scotland, the General Register Office of Scotland (now National Records of Scotland) and the National Trust for Scotland.

The Scottish Government has also provided additional resources to both SLD and the SLC to enable them to make progress with specific initiatives such as the SLD book on Scots grammar, the SLC website to support the Scots Language question in Census 2011 and to make progress with Scots language working Group recommendations such as the Scots Touns project.