Culture Minister says Scotland needs control over immigration as OAP numbers rise

Scotland's Culture Secretary has urged the UK Government to devolve immigration powers, with the number of pensioners in the country expected to rise in the next 25 years.

The National Records of Scotland released its latest projections for population numbers on Monday.

According to the statistics, there will be 240,000 more pension-age Scots - a jump of 23.2% - with the living age population to decrease by 7,000 over the same time frame.

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 the middle of 2043.

Despite a widening of the gap between births and deaths, Scotland's population is predicted to slowly increase, largely due to migration, by 2.5% in the next quarter of a century, with the projections suggesting the figure could be at 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 working age 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.''

She added: "The Scottish Government recently established a ministerial task force to look at Scotland's future population challenges and develop new solutions to address demographic changes, including supporting rural settlement and growing our birth rate and working age population.

"However, it is clear Scotland urgently needs powers to deliver a tailored immigration system so we can mitigate against the risks of the UK Government's increasingly restrictive policies and ensure Scotland can continue to be a welcoming, progressive and diverse country."

Immigration powers are currently reserved to Westminster and controlled by the Home Office under Priti Patel.