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New appointments have been made to the positions of Scottish Affairs Counsellor to North America and First Secretary of Scottish Affairs in Beijing

Joni Smith has been appointed to the position of Scottish Affairs Counsellor to North America. Joni has worked within the Civil Service since 2005 and was formerly Head of the First Minister’s Questions Briefing Team, with other roles including as a Senior Policy Adviser to the First Minister and Private Secretary to the former Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Alex Neil MSP. She holds an extensive Communications background, previously working as a broadcast journalist and subsequently working across various communications team prior to becoming Head of Communications for the then Deputy First Minister and Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon MSP in 2012.

Joni will be based in our Scottish Affairs Office within the British Embassy in Washington DC where she will lead on promoting Scotland's interests in the United States and Canada. The USA is Scotland's biggest overseas trading partner, our largest inward investor and a hugely valuable tourism market, with US students accounting for the second largest overseas group in Scotland and links between Scottish schools, colleges and universities and their counterparts in the USA are constantly developing. Work on our relationship with Canada is also essential, with Canada holding a special significance for Scotland, both as a major export and tourism market but also due to the strong and enduring historical links between our two countries and the prevalence of a well-defined Scottish Diaspora. This work will be supported by Scottish Government colleagues in Toronto.

Martin McDermott has been appointed First Secretary of Scottish Affairs based in the British Embassy in Beijing. Martin joined the Scottish Government in 2003 and has held variety of policy positions across Scottish Government Directorates, including in Justice, Education and Lifelong Learning. Martin’s recent posts include leading public and stakeholder engagement in the run up to the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014 and most recently as Head of Legislation, Finance and Delivery within the Social Security Directorate.

Martin will promote and represent the Scottish Government’s cultural, educational and economic interests in China and this work will be guided by our China Engagement Strategy, due for renewal in 2018, which will outline our priorities in China and ensure that respect for human rights and the rule of law remains one of our guiding principles.

Scotland’s Population 2016: the Registrar General’s Annual Review of Demographic Trends will be published on 2 August 2017. The Report contains information about births, deaths and marriages during the year, together with other demographic information. A copy of the report is available in the Scottish Parliament Reference Centre, or from the Registrar General’s website at www.nrscotland.gov.uk

The number of female victims of homicide who were killed by either a partner or an ex-partner in Scotland between 2011-12 and 2015-16 are shown in the following table. The National Statistics for 2016-17 will be published in October this year.

The number of female victims who were killed by either a partner or ex-partner,

Scotland, 2011-12 to 2015-16

Source: Homicide in Scotland, 2015-16

The First Minister visited the United States between the 2^nd and 7^th April attending events and meetings in California and New York.

The visit focused on promoting trade and investment, boosting tourism, sharing best practice across the public and private sector and promoting Scottish innovation, entrepreneurship and culture.

The relationship between Scotland and America is an important one with deep and long-standing ties reflected by the strong economic, cultural and personal links of our citizens. The US is Scotland’s top source of inward investment, accounting for 36% of projects and is Scotland’s second largest export partner - worth £4.56 billion or 15.9% of all international exports.

This visit came at a crucial time following the UK’s vote to leave the EU and the single market, and only days after the formal triggering of Article 50. It was important that the First Minister took this opportunity to reassure businesses and visitors from the United States that Scotland is an outward looking, welcoming country and remains open for business.

Beginning her engagements in California the First Minister, joined by Dr Lena Wilson of Scottish Enterprise and Chief Scientific Advisor Professor Sheila Rowan, focussed on opportunities for Scotland’s technology sector, low carbon innovation, university collaborations, and Scottish start-ups.

The First Minister met representatives from Par Equity and confirmed that Par Equity will open its first office in San Francisco and launch a $125 million fund, focussed on providing investment opportunities in health technology in Scotland and access to the US market for Scottish companies.

At Stanford the First Minister hosted a business breakfast for an influential business and academic audience in which she promoted Scottish Government support for high quality international research partnerships that further the economic, scientific and social aims of both Scotland and California, with specific reference to Strathclyde, Stanford and the SU2P initiative which also includes the universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh, Heriot Watt and Glasgow.

Meetings with Apple and Tesla concentrated on opportunities for shared public and private sector collaboration in the areas of next generation health and well-being research, including the use of digital health and care to deliver better results through personalised, proactive and self-managed care and on opportunities to further develop Scotland’s sustainable energy initiatives and reinforce the strategic importance of energy storage technology to Scotland’s wider energy strategy, highlighting the common goal of a holistic energy system.

The First Minister also hosted a dinner with representatives of major US firms to discuss opportunities for Scotland in Silicon Valley and met with American angel investors, ahead of a delegation of seven female CEO’s supported by Investing Women to California, to highlight the Scottish Governments vision of Scotland as a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation committed to unleashing the economic potential of women.

Building on the technology focus of the visit, the First Minister later visited the Flatiron School, a digital skills academy in New York that is helping equip people with skills to gain employment in ICT and digital technology occupations. The Flatiron school provided an opportunity to learn from one of the foremost digital skills academies in the world and followed the announcement that the Scottish Government is to make £36 million available in loans to business to support digital skills training.

The visit also focussed on key economic opportunities in the financial services sector, food and drink and tourism.

In New York the First Minister met with representatives of Marriott Hotels and welcomed their continued investment and strong growth pipeline in Scotland including their commitment to create 7 new hotels and 1,400 new rooms in Scotland by 2021, reinforcing Scotland’s key tourism investment and visitor attraction strengths at a global leadership level.

She also met with Executives from TripAdvisor and announced a European-first, multi-year collaboration, with VisitScotland. The unique partnership with the world’s largest travel website will attract up to 70 million new visitors every year generating a potential additional spend of £150million.

Celebrating Scotland’s food and drink industry success the First Minister attended a showcase event in New York organised by Scottish Development International to promote Scottish produce to an audience of over 100 North American buyers and industry influencers and to showcase new agreements secured by Scottish firms worth £8m of export sales to North America, further strengthening food and drink exports in a market that was worth £1billion in 2016.

The First Minister also held business meetings with Morgan Stanley and BlackRock to further develop the relationships with key inward investors and met with staff and graduates at Aberdeen Asset Management, officially opening their expansion in New York and discussed economic developments in Scotland, Europe and the US with Professor Joseph Stiglitz of the Council of Economic Advisers.

In addition to the focus on business and investment, the First Minister met Scottish Ballet Youth Exchange students studying at the prestigious New York University TISCH School of the Performing Arts, supported by Scottish Government funding.

Fourteen participants from Scotland’s leading performing arts schools aged between 14 and 24 are currently taking part in a two week visit to the US, collaborating with dance students from TISCH. This allows Scottish Ballet to showcase Scottish dance training abroad and to create a new work to be premiered at The Joyce Theater in New York City.

This initiative was part of a wider £100,000 International Touring Fund awarded to Scottish Ballet this year to enable their first ever run in New York

The First Minister also hosted a reception to celebrate the Scottish Ballet’s first tenure in New York City, and promoted the world-class calibre of Scottish performing arts.

The visit also provided an opportunity to highlight the contribution Scotland can make to key global challenges.

During the California leg of her visit the First Minister reaffirmed Scotland’s role in tackling climate change during a meeting with the Governor of California. She signed a joint agreement between Scotland and California committing to work together on climate change. The First Minister and the Governor discussed how the two administrations could work together to achieve the ambitions set out in the Under2 MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) and the importance of offshore wind in tackling climate change and considered how the two governments could share knowledge and best practice in developing this technology.

The First Minister followed the agreement with a speech to over 250 Stanford academics and students on Scotland’s Place in the World which can be viewed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T4QeptQTV0 The First Minister then took part in a Q&A, hosted by Professor Michael McFaul, Director at The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

Attending the 8th Women in the World Summit, the First Minister discussed Scotland’s commitment to equality, her personal experience of being a female leader and the importance of empowering women and girls. This followed on from a visit by the First Minister to the UN where she held meetings with UN Women, the Head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UK’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. During a speech at the UN, the First Minister announced £1.2m of funding to train more than 200 women from conflict zones around the world on peacekeeping and conflict resolution. The First Minister used her address to highlight the importance of mediation and respect for human rights as a way of preventing conflict, and lent her support to the UN Secretary General’s call for more female representation in the United Nations.

Keith Brown MSP, the then Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities, opened the first of a series of UK-wide HS2 Supply Chain Conferences in Edinburgh on 5 November 2015 to inform Scotland-based companies of the forthcoming opportunities to bid for contracts to build HS2. A further Supply Chain Conference was held in Aberdeen on 6 September 2016.

The Cabinet Secretary and I also met with Sir David Higgins, Executive Chairman of HS2 Ltd and Mark Thurston, the new Chief Executive of HS2 Ltd on 7 February 2017. These discussions included the construction schedule for Phase 1 and the forthcoming design contract opportunities for Phase two.

The latest statistics from the Export Statistics Scotland 2015 publication estimate (a) Scottish exports to Indonesia at £70 million; (b) Scottish exports to Singapore at £525 million; and (c) Scottish exports to Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei at £285 million.

Our Trade and Investment Strategy contains a comprehensive action plan aimed at boosting our exporting performance. This includes measures to enable businesses to realise opportunities in new export markets such as Asia. Scottish Development International has a permanent presence in Southeast Asia and is responsible for promoting trade and investment activity in the region focussing on those sectors with the greatest economic potential for Scotland, such as energy, education and food and drink.

I travelled to Japan from 12 to 17 February, where I undertook a programme of activity to strengthen links in business, trade, tourism, education and culture.

I met Mr Yukio Takano, the mayor of Toshima Ward, one of Tokyo’s most diverse cultural centres, where it was announced that a Scotland Day will be held in the Ward in November 2017. The Japan Scotland Association will organise the programme with support from Toshima Ward in providing venues, building on the success of last year’s inaugural event. Scotland Day is expected to feature visual arts and cultural performances, displays promoting Scottish products and Scotland as a tourism destination and place to study, plus talks on Scotland and Japan’s historical connections.

During a meeting at their offices, I had a discussion with the Nippon Foundation on their collaboration with Robert Gordon University to run a summer school for students in the field of marine engineering and opportunities for further collaboration

I hosted a business reception at the British Embassy in Tokyo to promote Scotland as a place to invest and highlight that Scotland is open for business. Guests included representatives from current and potential investors in Scotland, retailers of Scottish produce and a range of other businesses. The reception showcased examples of Scottish food, drink and textiles and promoted Scotland as a destination for tourism. Also present were a cultural delegation from Scotland supported by the British Council to explore the potential for deeper cultural collaborations between Scotland and Japan; and a delegation of teachers and education representatives from across Scotland supported by the Japan Foundation as part of a programme to encourage greater teaching of Japanese language and culture in Scottish schools.

I met Mr Hiroyuki Yoshiie, State Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to reaffirm the Scottish Government’s commitment to continue developing the relationship with Japan in the areas of education and culture. Later, I hosted a roundtable discussion with senior representatives from national and local government, the national culture agency, the Tokyo Olympics Games Organising Committee, the British Council and Festivals Edinburgh to share Scotland’s experience of using major events to promote cultural engagement and tourism. I heard about current plans for cultural activity for both the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and encouraged engagement in learning from Scotland’s experience in managing large-scale cultural events and maximising their impact.

I highlighted the quality and provenance of authentic Scottish produce during a visit to the first ever Scottish food and drink fair at the Isetan Shinjuku Store in Tokyo, which boasts the highest sales of any department store in Japan.

I spoke at a seminar at the British Embassy to outline Scotland’s approach to the care of people with dementia. Scotland and Japan are both remodelling their approach to care of older people due to ageing populations. At the seminar, government and healthcare professionals in Tokyo, together with experts from University of Stirling and NHS Scotland, explored the human rights-based approach facilitated by the development of a ‘Dementia Friendly Community’. I witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Stirling and the Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital and Institute of Gerontology committing to a long-term partnership. Scotland’s person-centric approach is highly regarded by the Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital and Institute of Gerontology, which is looking to introduce a similar system in Japan.

I opened a seminar in Tokyo to encourage Japanese companies to invest in Scotland, highlighting Scotland’s strengths in innovation, research and manufacturing. Organised by Scottish Development International and the Japan External Trade Relations Organisation, the seminar reflected the developing relationship between Scottish and Japanese agencies in promoting bilateral trade and investment.

During my visit, I held meetings with a number of current investors in Scotland including Mitsubishi Electric, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Yokokawa, Toshiba Medical Systems, OKI Data and Reprocell.

In Nagasaki I visited Scotland House, the hub for Scottish marine renewables companies that I opened on my previous visit in 2015, where I announced that Aquatera, a leading Scottish environmental services firm, had been awarded a contract to support Nagasaki’s tidal energy test site in Japan. The contract was confirmed by Mr Toshiyuki Sakai, Head of the Nagasaki Marine Industry Cluster Promotion Association, as I met businesses and agencies to discuss opportunities for Scottish companies to support the development of Japan’s marine renewable energy sector.

I also met Mr Tomihisa Taue, the Mayor of Nagasaki City; Mr Houdou Nakamura, the Governor of Nagasaki Prefecture; and Mr Susumu Satomi, the Vice Governor of Nagasaki Prefecture; and a number of other senior representatives from Nagasaki’s business and sporting communities to reinforce the developing connections between Nagasaki and organisations in Scotland, including collaborations in renewable energy, academic exchange and sport. Nagasaki has been confirmed as the venue for the Scottish national rugby team’s holding camp for the Rugby World Cup in 2019.

During a visit to their campus, Nagasaki University confirmed their intention to extend their existing collaborations with a number of Scottish universities, to include the area of humanities. I held a seminar with humanities students at Nagasaki University, where they discussed the importance of international collaboration and exchange.

The seminar followed a meeting with university Vice President Mr Shunichi Yamashita and Professor Ikuo Yamomoto. Professor Yamomoto was instrumental in setting up partnerships with Heriot Watt University, University of Edinburgh and the University of Stirling. Nagasaki University also has partnerships with University of Aberdeen and University of Highlands and Islands. Existing partnerships include subjects such as marine energy, aquaculture, marine biology and English language exchanges. During my visit, I appointed Professor Yamomoto as a Global Scot in recognition of his work in supporting the relationship between Scotland and Japan.

There were a number of media engagements throughout the visit during which I highlighted the benefits of business and academic partnerships between Scotland and Japan, and set out the Scottish Government’s position on Europe.

I am very concerned about the impact on people’s lives that will result from the recently announced amendments being made to the Personal Independence Payment regulations by the UK Government. I have already written to the UK Minister responsible for this policy, expressing both this Government's opposition and the strength of feeling in Scotland about the number of people who will be affected, and calling on the UK Government to reconsider these changes.

For our part, we are committed to embedding dignity and respect in every aspect of Scotland’s approach to delivering social security. We will do this by involving those with direct experience of the current benefits system in the design of our new processes - through our Experience Panels – and by drawing on expertise through groups such as the Disability and Carers Benefits Expert Advisory Group, chaired by Dr Jim McCormick, current Associate Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.