Question S1W-03293: Michael Russell, South of Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 14/12/1999

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it spends in total annually on the development and promotion of the Scots language, including grants to the Scots Language Society, Scottish National Dictionary Association, Scots Language Resource Centre and other projects.

Answered by Sam Galbraith (07/02/2000): In 1999-2000 the grants to the Scottish National Dictionary Association, the Scots Language Resource Centre and the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue are £40,000, £23,500 and £49,000 respectively. No grant has been made to the Scots Language Society. Education Department guidelines dealing with the development and promotion of Scots do so in the context of the curriculum, and it is therefore not practicable to estimate the spending related to Scots.

Question S1W-01886: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 06/10/1999

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has plans to amend the census format to include a question on the Scots language in order to assist in the promotion and provision of Scots in education and other areas.

Answered by Jim Wallace (20/10/1999): The topics proposed by the UK Government for the 2001 Census of Population were announced in the White Paper (Cm 4253) published on 4 March 1999. The White Paper did not contain a proposal to include a question on Scots language in the Census in Scotland.

The Scottish Executive are now responsible for the Census in Scotland and will be making proposals about the content of the 2001 Census to the Scottish Parliament later this year.