The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Immigration forecast triggers demand for devolution of powers
Education: Raisin a laugh at St Andrews Politics: Scotland to have more pensioners and fewer workers
Scotland’s culture secretary yesterday urged the UK Government to devolve immigration powers, with the number of pensioners north of the border expected to rise in the next 25 years.
The National Records of Scotland released its latest projections for population numbers yesterday.
There will be 240,000 more pension-age Scots – a jump of 23.2% – with the working-age population to decrease by 7,000 over the same timeframe.
The projections suggest Scotland’s natural growth – when the number of births outweigh the number of deaths – will continue to decrease, with a predicted gap of 18,800 more deaths in Scotland by 2043.
Despite a widening of this gap, Scotland’s population is predicted to slowly rise, largely due to migration, by 2.5% in the next quarter of a century, projections suggesting the figure could be 5.57 million.
But a possible downturn in migration could cause the rise in population to stagnate.
The projections also looked at the possible effects of Brexit on Scotland’s population, predicting the number of people in the country if
EU migration is halved, or halted entirely. If migration from the EU drops by 50%, population growth is expected to slow to just 1% in the next 25 years, whereas if it is stopped altogether numbers would decline by 0.5%.
Culture Secretary Fiona
Hyslop has called on the UK Government to devolve immigration powers to Holyrood. She said: “We want people in Scotland to live longer, healthier and happier lives so this projected increase in life expectancy is extremely welcome.
“Today’s figures also suggest that inward migration will be the only driver of population growth in Scotland. However, they do not take into account the damaging potential impact of Brexit. Our pension-age population is projected to grow while our workingage population falls, and could decline even further if EU migration is reduced.
“This is why Scotland needs inward migration to support our public services and economy, particularly in sectors like tourism, hospitality, construction and agriculture, but also to enrich and diversify our society. Scotland urgently needs powers to deliver a tailored immigration system”
Immigration powers are currently reserved to Westminster and controlled by the Home Office under Priti Patel.
The Scottish Conservatives said the Scottish Government had been well warned about the consequences of an ageing population.