Chamber and committees

Given the time, convener, I will leave it there.

Is there time for another little question, convener?

We have discussed a reduction in local authority support, if you like, but, according to the Scottish Parliament information centre, there has been a 20 per cent reduction in real-terms funding from the Scottish Government over the past 10 years. What sort of impact is that having on the sector? What coping mechanisms, or otherwise, are you utilising to try to continue to make an impact and improve culture-based policy in that context?

Your submission notes the collaboration that you are involved in. Do you feel that collaboration could be strengthened under a place-based approach to culture within communities in order to collectively respond to unmet demand across those communities?

That is really helpful.

It can be quite daunting to develop something from scratch. If everyone is doing that at the same time, perhaps there could be a centralised role in some shape or form.

Can you compare your framework with a similar local authority such as Dundee City Council, for example?

Definitely. Do you think that there is a role in community engagement for standardised questions so that we do not stop adding to the data but there is some way of making comparisons, and we can recognise good practice and try to bring everyone up together?

In the context of place-based culture policy, how do you measure success and what metrics do you use? Is there any standardisation in place so that you can compare different sectors or local authority areas? Katie Nicoll can start on that.

Ambassador, I am interested in the priority area of a green Nordic region, and particularly your thoughts on what areas could be explored for collaboration between the Scottish Parliament or, indeed, the Scottish Government and the Nordic Council of Ministers.