Chamber and committees

—[Inaudible.] particularly that last comment from Ms Boyack. I will go to Ms Reeves first. I remind witnesses that, if they want to come in on a particular question that was not directed to them, they should put an R in the chat.

Good morning, and a warm welcome to the fifth meeting in 2021 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. As a result of a membership change, this will be Sue Webber’s last appearance. I thank her for her contribution; we wish you well for your new parliamentary duties.

Agenda item 1 is to decide whether we take the evidence that we have heard today in private. Do we agree to take item 4 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you.

Item 2 is our pre-budget scrutiny work. The committee is considering the continuing impact of Covid-19 on the culture sector and its longer-term future.

We have two panels of witnesses—our third and fourth on the topic. First, we will hear from Lucy Casot, who is the chief executive officer of Museums Galleries Scotland; John McVay, who is the chief executive officer of the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television—PACT; Alison Reeves, who is the Scotland manager of Making Music; and Fiona Sturgeon Shea, who is the chief executive officer of the Federation of Scottish Theatre. A warm welcome to you all.

We are tight for time, as we have two panels, so I would very much welcome succinct questions and answers. We will move straight to questions. I remind members that, if they have a direct question for a particular witness, they should name the witness and direct their questions to them. I ask the witnesses to come in only if they have something to add to what has been said by other witnesses, as we have considerable time restrictions.

Our initial questions are from Ms Boyack.

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to highlight Motherwell Football Club as an excellent example with regard to the project that you mentioned. Motherwell was one of the pilots, so I know the project very well and cannot speak highly enough of it.

I will go to Ms Sturgeon Shea first. She might also have wanted to comment on the previous question.

For the record, it is probably worth saying that, although this is the committee’s final formal evidence session, tomorrow we are having a roundtable with a number of third sector organisations that are working with younger people using music and the arts.

I move to questions from Dr Alasdair Allan.

Yes.

I do not think that anyone else wants to come in on that issue, but I wonder whether Ms Sturgeon Shea wishes to comment on the possibilities of cross-co-operation. Would it worry you if a lot of people in theatre were leaving to work in the screen industry?

Mr McVay, the news from the screen industry is very positive, which is something that we do not hear a lot of just now with regard to post-Covid economic recovery. I want to understand some of the challenges around filling the gap of 30,000 jobs in the sector. Those jobs could never be filled purely by people who are currently living, studying and working in Scotland. Do you have people coming from Europe and beyond to work on the productions? Has Brexit had any impact on that? Has that been a challenge for you?

The committee also heard that many people have left industries in which there is a reliance on short-term and freelance contracts, because of the lack of job security. Is the sector remodelling how it might work with regard to job security?