The remit of Radio nan Gàidheal is to deliver a comprehensive speech and music service for Gaelic speakers covering a wide range of genres and reflecting the issues, events, cultures and interests of the people of Scotland from a Gaelic perspective and through the medium of the Gaelic language.

Radio nan Gàidheal will continue to contribute towards the delivery of the BBC's public purposes in the range of ways set out in its service licence. Key developments in the way in which the service will contribute to each purpose are outlined below. These are designed to address the priorities identified by the BBC Trust, future-proof the delivery of the purposes, and address perceived gaps in delivery in line with strategies in the BBC's purpose plans.

1 Sustaining citizenship and civil society

• Priority: Radio nan Gàidheal will provide an impartial news service, combining reporting and analysis with individual and community involvement, with a particular focus on those issues that interest and affect Gaelic audiences. Other speech programming, such as Coinneach MacIomhair, will provide insights into issues and aspects of contemporary Scotland. News will be scheduled at major junctions in the schedule, with bulletins broadcast frequently across the day. Political coverage such as Aithris na Maidne and Aithris na Seachdain will focus on Scottish affairs but will also cover the Westminster and European parliaments, enabling audiences better to understand how they are governed at a local, national, UK and European level.
• Radio nan Gàidheal will offer a platform for the Gaelic-speaking communities of Scotland. It will, as appropriate, version the BBC's wider media literacy initiatives for its own audiences. Radio nan Gàidheal's newsgathering effort and programming will be complemented by and coordinated with the new TV and online services delivered as part of the Gaelic Digital Service. The pool of Gaelic-speaking journalists in communities will be augmented and as a result the coverage of community, local and national news and events will be enhanced.

2 Representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities

• Radio nan Gàidheal broadcasts to the whole of Scotland, including its island communities, and reflects the diverse lives of its listeners through its output, including events, ceremonies and anniversaries of national significance. We will interact with our audiences through outreach at a local level and encourage them to participate in our programmes on a daily basis, through our news coverage and topical programming, such as Coinneach MacIomhair, and through our music programmes, such as Mire ri Moir and Caithream Ciuil, giving voice to a range of viewpoints. We will use our sites on bbc.co.uk/alba to support and extend this work.
• We will continue to offer past and present-day reflections on the Gaelic community through individual programmes and programme series which will focus on rural and urban issues.
• We will also work to broaden our reach and appeal to younger sections of the audience with programmes such as Rapal, and develop skills among children and young people with outreach work in schools through the weekly show Aileag.

3 Promoting education and learning

• Radio nan Gàidheal will provide opportunities for informal learning across a wide range of subjects in our features, factual and documentary output. In particular we will broadcast formal and informal education series that support Gaelic learning and development using a range of programmes to support the developing thinking and guidance around the Scottish Executive's A Curriculum for Excellence, by portraying children and young people as successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors to society.
• We will continue to support language learners and produce a variety of output which offers informal learning opportunities for adults, in collaboration with the new Gaelic Digital Service, agencies such as Bòrd na Gàidhlig and other organisations. This will include encouraging and supporting Gaelic writing.

4 Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence

• Radio nan Gàidheal will nurture and build appreciation of traditional and contemporary Scottish culture and provide a platform for the best of Scottish talent and creativity. We will offer platforms for people and passions, seeking to allow new voices to be heard and discovering and supporting writing, musical and entertainment talent. The Rapal cross-media music brand will be used to showcase the best new Scottish talent and actively encourage and develop songwriting, musical composition and performance skills.
• Radio nan Gàidheal will build on successful collaborations with Radio Scotland on Celtic, traditional and contemporary music events.
• In 2009 the schedule will offer special programmes and themed weeks to complement events taking place under the banner of Year of Scottish Homecoming.

4 Bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK

• Radio nan Gàidheal brings the world to the UK through its regular coverage of international events and issues in its news and current affairs output. The US presidential elections will be a key element within the schedule and coverage will include contributions from the Gaelic speakers in communities across America.
• A major landmark cross-media series on oil is planned, with content prepared for radio exploring the local, national and global dimensions of the industry.

5 Delivering the benefit of emerging communications technologies

• Radio nan Gàidheal output is available on digital radio and is streamed live on the internet, with a large proportion of content available on the Listen Again online facility within a seven-day window. We strive to make innovative content for younger sections of the Scottish audience. With the development of the news service we will pursue the availability of Gaelic news material via mobile devices. bbc.co.uk/alba encourages audience interaction and media literacy and introduces users to related content and services.

No specific conditions.