Chamber and committees

I want to pick up on the comments that you made in your opening remarks about the purpose of devolution, which is to increase decision making and accountability in Scotland as part of the UK. You gave a pretty full critique of how things are working at the moment. Today is the committee’s first chance to talk to you and we are thinking about the next five years. It feels to me as though there are three levels: the ministerial level with joint ministerial relationships; parliamentary accountability and the relationships between different parts of the civil service across the UK; and the local authority level. Your description of the current structures and relationships is not overly positive. What are your short-term suggestions for how we begin to reset those relationships, given that we are at a critical moment?

When we look at common frameworks and think about how we deliver parliamentary accountability on that raft of different frameworks, what changes need to be made? I suspect that there is agreement around the committee table that “noted” is not a full way of engaging with us and letting us know what is being discussed at the most senior levels. Knowing that might help us to think about our questions and what UK ministers we want to have a fuller discussion with as we set out our work for the next five years.

I have a quick question. It was good to discuss screen production, but I want to talk about live performance. We have lost a lot of incredible talent because of the pandemic. Can we talk about forward planning? The 75th Edinburgh international festival is next year. That is a huge economic issue, not only for Edinburgh but for the wider economy. Can we think about resilience and recovery in the live performance sector? What more can the Scottish Government do to ensure that people and venues in that sector are supported? It must be incredibly difficult for them to plan ahead after the difficulties and uncertainty of the past year.

Those two answers were very useful and help us to think about accountability and what further scrutiny we should do.

I return to my first question to the cabinet secretary about the priorities that you will change in the short term. You are clearly of the view that the system is not working as intended, and there have been big changes as a result of Brexit. I know that you want a different constitutional settlement in the long run, but, to make things work now, so that you—and the other devolved Governments—can get the job done, what is your top priority? I note that the Welsh Government has republished its suggestions on how things need to change. What short-term changes do you want that you think would be of assistance? I think that it would be helpful for the committee to put those to UK ministers itself.

Congratulations on your appointment, Clare. I now hand over to you.

I will take this opportunity to say that I am also one of the vice-presidents of the European Movement in Scotland. That is in the voluntary section of my entry in the register of members’ interests, too. Thanks for that reminder, Patrick.

Agenda item 2 is the choosing of a convener. Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish National Party are eligible for nomination as convener of the committee. My understanding is that Clare Adamson is that party’s nominee. If any member disagrees with that nomination, they should type N in the chat bar.

I am delighted to declare that no one has typed N in the chat bar.

Clare Adamson was chosen as convener.

We have two excellent legacy papers that will be really useful. The one from the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee is good and has a lot of recommendations. From my perspective, and bringing the two reports together, it is about what we can do to add quality to the Parliament’s scrutiny.

In relation to Brexit, there are clearly issues that we need to think through. Donald Cameron is right that other committees will be interested in issues such as Erasmus+ and trade. There are wider issues about what happens post-Brexit and how the devolution settlement is working. We need to pick up those overarching issues, as Donald Cameron said.

I am interested in the recommendations about scrutinising the Scottish Government’s external affairs and international development work. We should look at the external affairs strategy and the international development programme, both of which will be really important as the world begins to reopen post-Covid. We need to consider Scotland’s role—that is an important issue for us.

The points about common frameworks and interparliamentary work are important. It is key for the committee to promote such work. That is partly about our relationships under the devolution settlement, but it is also about post-Brexit relationships across the UK. That is a really important piece of work for us.

There is a huge agenda on culture post-Covid. Yesterday, the First Minister made a statement about the beginnings of reopening. In Edinburgh and the Lothians, festivals are a huge issue. There are issues about the capacity of theatres and venues such as live music venues to come back post-pandemic. Another issue is the impact of arts funding, both pre-Covid and in relation to what will happen to regenerate the sector. I suspect that I am not alone in having been contacted by artists, musicians and others involved in the culture sector who do not work full time and who basically have had no work at all during the pandemic. There are a lot of issues to pick up there.

We also have the legacy expert panel’s report. I wonder whether, for our first session, it would be useful to get an update from the panel, just to help to shape our work, as we have such a lot in our brief. It is about six months since that report was produced, so it would be useful to get an update.

Good morning. Welcome to the first meeting in session 6 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. I am a member of the Scottish Parliament for Lothian and, as the oldest member of the committee, I have the pleasure of convening the first two items of business this morning. I welcome all the members of the committee. I very much look forward to working with everyone.

Before we move to the first item on the agenda, I remind everyone to turn their mobile phones to silent.

Agenda item 1 is declarations of interests. This is a chance for everyone on the committee to declare any interests that they have that are relevant to the work of the committee. I will start by saying that I do not have any relevant interests that I wish to declare.

I thank everybody. For the information of people who are watching this broadcast, I point out that people can see our entries in the register of members’ interests and our voluntary records on our pages on the Scottish Parliament website.