THE Scottish Government has been forced to delete a social media post after a glaring error on a map of the country – which may have even been unlawful – was pointed out.
The embarrassing moment for the Government came after it looked to promote the anniversary of legislation aimed at ending “period poverty”.
The Government wrote: “One year ago, the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 came into force.
“Since then, period products have been free at the point of access at thousands of pick-up points throughout Scotland — including many libraries, ferries and high street shops.”
But in the video shared alongside the post, Shetland was not included in a stylised map purporting to show the “length and breadth of Scotland”.
Land reform campaigner Magnus Davidson pointed out the error on social media, writing: “Interesting question for legislation buffs. Is this tweet Islands (Scotland) Act compliant?
“Is this media ‘in any form a document’ and if yes, is there a info [sic] on why it doesn’t abide by the Shetland mapping requirement?”
The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 states: “The Shetland mapping requirement is that, in any map of Scotland, the Shetland Islands must be displayed in a manner that accurately and proportionately represents their geographical location in relation to the rest of Scotland.”
It further says: “When publishing in any form a document that includes a map of Scotland, the Scottish Ministers, a local authority and any other Scottish public authority with mixed functions or no reserved functions must … comply with the Shetland mapping requirement.”
The error was noticed by Scottish Government minister and SNP MSP for the Highlands and Islands Emma Roddick, who wrote: “Oh nooooo.”
Oh nooooo
— Emma Roddick MSP (@Emma_Roddick) August 16, 2023
Asked if she would take “decisive action”, Roddick replied: “It won't be my first ‘please fix the map’ email.”
Davidson responded: “I am very sorry Emma but it’s too good a piece of legislation.”
The mistake was pointed out on Wednesday, and on Thursday the Scottish Government deleted the post on X/Twitter. At the time of writing, another post with the error was still live on Facebook.
On both social media sites, the Scottish Government put out a second post with an updated video showing a more complete map of Scotland.
Davidson commented in response to his first post: “Ok we have an updated map and a deleted tweet which suggests the answer may have been no.
“Got to show some respect to one of the greatest pieces of legislation to come out of the Scottish Parliament.”
The Scottish Government has been asked for comment.
