Chamber and committees

This may have been covered by others, but we heard that the NPF should be an everybody thing. I am not unwise enough to suggest that the NPF will ever capture the public imagination—I am not sure that would be entirely healthy anyway—but what has come through is the importance of awareness among community-level bodies that are spending or applying for money. Is there anything that the Government could do to express the purpose of all this in terms that more effectively capture the imagination of people at the community level?

I have a question about some of the many complexities that people who come here will face with regard to information that they have or do not have.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has pointed out that people might have different immigration statuses depending on the different schemes under which they come into the UK. I do not know whether that perception is accurate but it cannot contribute to making life easy for people who come here. Does Andy Sirel or Graham O’Neill have anything to say about what could be done to simplify that situation or, at least, to provide a clearer flow of information to remove at least some of the worries that refugees might have?

Without putting words in people’s mouths, I would suggest that it sounds as though the type of process associated with a work visa is being conflated with the type of process associated with a refugee programme in a war. My question, which is for Andy Sirel and Graham O’Neill, is: do you think that the process that we have is fitted to the current situation with refugees, or are we just retrofitting a process that has been designed for another purpose, such as providing visas for workers?

On the back of your statement, cabinet secretary, will you say something about what the process of developing the joint fisheries statement has been like from the Scottish Government’s point of view? Does it say anything more generally about the relationship between the four Administrations? Could the process be changed or improved in the future?

As has been touched on, regional inshore fisheries groups play an important part in developing fisheries management plans under the JFS. Do you see the role of RIFGs changing? If so, how might it change, and how might that be supported in future? I put that to Helen McLachlan.

One of the things that has potentially changed post-Brexit is the opportunity for Europe-wide co-operation on fisheries science and innovation. Can you say anything about the Scottish Government’s approach to that and how it works with the fishing industry to ensure that the science continues and enjoys support?

As has been alluded to, international negotiations are going to have an impact, just as the changed landscape post-Brexit is having a wider social impact on fishing and other rural communities. I know that a number of members are keen for the committee to look at that in the future. How will negotiations impact on the delivery of the JFS’s policies? Can you give an example of how those negotiations will determine our ability to implement those policies? That question is for Professor Harrison in the first instance.

In mentioning the wider world, you lead me nicely on to the other issue that I want to ask about, which again touches on budgeting. Scotland is presently preparing to welcome people from Ukraine—we hope—in the coming days. Do cultural institutions need to start thinking about how to celebrate the culture that those people will bring with them and how to involve people in that community in the work that you are already doing?

My only other question is for Mr Robertson again. Visitors to Scotland often comment on the effect on their wellbeing of being able to see Scotland’s natural environment, historic buildings and so on. One would think that there must be huge potential for health and culture to work together to utilise the resource that is simply Scotland itself. Of course, there are many people who either do not know that those opportunities are there for them or who know that they are there but cannot afford to visit places around the country. Is there more that can be done to try to break down some of the barriers that, in some cases, might be caused by deprivation?

Mr Yousaf, you have talked about breaking down the barriers between silos. This is something that has come up in the committee before when we were talking about budgets and the relationship between health and culture. Of course, apart from the department that you run centrally, there are territorial health boards. Do the messages about working across these barriers get through to health boards? What can you do to ensure that they are thinking about culture? What is the culture of culture in health boards? Given the pressures that they are under, how can they accommodate some of these ideas?