On 8 September the Council of Europe (which has 47 member states) published its latest report on the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages which seeks to support and promote lesser-spoken languages across Europe. In 2001 the UK signed up to and ratified the Charter in respect of Cornish, Irish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Scots, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. The report acknowledged that the devolved governments, in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, had certainly encouraged these languages but was quite critical of authorities in London for failing these languages in a number of key areas and for doing little to promote them as integral parts of UK cultural heritage as it does with English.  In relation to Scots specifically, the report said that the UK had failed to promote the teaching of Scots as it had agreed under the terms of the Charter. It also went on to say that more needed to be done by the UK to encourage Ulster Scots - the dialect of Scots spoken in Ulster - as well as promote “respect, understanding and tolerance in relation to Scots” generally vis-à-vis the other languages and those in the mass media.  To date not a single programme has been produced through the medium of Scots though Scots speakers also pay a TV licence fee. In 2011 a total of 1.5 million speakers of Scots were returned by the census in Scotland accounting for some 30% of the Scottish population.