Our “Building a New Scotland” paper on migration in an independent Scotland sets out how migration is vital to the future of our rural and island communities. On Monday, I heard that at first hand in Fort Augustus from hospitality and seafood sector representatives, as we discussed the importance of attracting and retaining people in order to support rural and island areas to thrive.

In the meantime, our action plan for addressing depopulation will build on existing collaboration with Highlands and Islands local authorities through a population round table, jointly chaired by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, and through our support for the Convention of the Highlands and Islands’s population working group and its oversight of community settlement officers, who deliver place-based interventions that support population attraction and retention.