Chamber and committees

I recognise that there is collaboration between local authorities and the third sector across many different areas, including health and wellbeing. We heard from Mr Booth about Glasgow. Councillor Heddle, is there anything from a collaborative learning perspective that smaller councils such as Orkney Islands Council and Argyll and Bute Council, which is my own, can bring to the table in relation to how they operate when embedding culture in different areas?

I will add to that list. Museums Galleries Scotland also did an amazing job of getting funding out. I think that it made the decision that organisations should have three months of reserves to keep them going, which was very helpful. Local authorities also helped.

I will change the topic slightly. As you know, we have just taken evidence from Iain Munro of Creative Scotland. He spoke about the importance of the culture budget, but also highlighted the importance of cross-portfolio conversations. For example, I attended a meeting of the cross-party group on India at which we talked about trade, but culture is a really important part of that, as was recognised by the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise, Ivan McKee.

We also talked about wellbeing. Last year, you were joined in an evidence session by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, and we talked a bit about social prescribing and how the culture portfolio might be able to help in that. Iain Munro finished his evidence by saying that we must proceed with that in a determined way. Therefore, I am interested to know what the Scottish Government is doing in that area.

I would imagine that the knowledge that Historic Environment Scotland has would be useful, too. Indeed, Mr Cameron asked earlier about restoring buildings and so on.

Thank you, convener. If I understand things correctly, the European maritime and fisheries fund share for Scotland, based on the evidence and on sea area, would have been around £62 million per annum. I do not believe that we have received that, despite Scotland’s other Government promising to match European funds on withdrawal from the European Union. How has that impacted on the work that Marine Scotland can do and on the flexibility that your department has?

Ariane Burgess asked about how the competitive process may—or may not—have worked for some of the councils involved. We got really clear information from the Scottish Futures Trust about the relationships that had been built up between councils and communities. I would be interested in hearing whether you have any thoughts on that. There was also discussion about the pipeline of projects. You mentioned that projects that were not successful in the most recent round are still being looked at. Do you have anything to add on that?

Last week, the representative of my council—Argyll and Bute Council—talked about separation and how taking the process away from island communities was not in the spirit of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018. What are your thoughts on that?

It was really helpful to hear about the work that goes on with the island boards and what have you. We have heard a lot of evidence today and in previous weeks about the importance of feedback and listening to communities, and of feeding back to the communities on how things will change.

I will take the convener’s lead and jump around a wee bit. Can you confirm that the NFUS co-convenes the ARIOB and that, therefore, there is a relationship between the NFUS and the organisation? I also introduce the idea of a vacuum—is there a vacuum, if that is the right word to use, of information and collaboration in relation to Scotland’s other Government, which it did not elect?

May I ask something?

Convener, you raised the fact that Scotland has two Governments, so it is reasonable to make that request.

As I travel around Argyll and Bute, I get a lot of feedback from constituents, including, in particular, those who live on the islands, who say that they really understand what their island and community need. Looking to the allocation of money in the future, whatever that might bring, how will you learn from the responses that we have had regarding the funding and the allocations and learn more deeply from the communities that would argue that they know best?

I will take you up on that, thank you.