Chamber and committees

Can we bring in Ms Campbell?

Oh dear. I am really sorry—oh, Mike is back.

I will bring in Mr Baker, and if Ms Campbell and Ms Cullen want to come in, or if there is anything that they want to add, they can put an R in the chat.

Thank you. It appears that I pre-empted a further question from Ms Webber with my supplementary—I apologise for that.

I thank everyone for their attendance. It has been a very helpful session. I again apologise for the difficulties with onboarding Ms Campbell from the TMSA, but we will follow up with her in writing and invite her to comment on the questions that she was not able to answer today.

I am conscious of time and we have spent a lot of time on this subject area, but would Mr Jones or Ms Campbell like to add anything?

I am not sure whether Ms Campbell is with us at the moment. I do not think she has managed to get back on to the call. I am sorry about that. We will move to questions from Dr Alasdair Allan.

I would like to ask a supplementary on the back of Ms Minto’s questions. I am excited to hear Mr Baker’s enthusiasm for the culture in place, especially as a long-term music charity that supports young people in my area is building its own bespoke studio and performance space.

That leads me to ask about younger people, because—this question might be more for Ms Cullen and Mr Jones—young people are often excluded by age because of licensing in premises. What opportunities are there for younger performers and younger audiences to take part in such live music opportunities?

Good morning. I warmly welcome everyone to the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. We have received apologies from Mark Ruskell, who has other committee engagements this morning.

Our only agenda item today is pre-budget scrutiny of culture sector funding, as part of our pre-budget scrutiny work. The committee is currently looking at the continuing impact of Covid-19 on the culture sector and the sector’s long-term future.

We have with us our second panel on the topic. We welcome Matt Baker, orchestrator, the Stove Network; Fiona Campbell, convener, the Traditional Music & Song Association of Scotland; Clara Cullen, a venue support manager at the Music Venue Trust; and Mike Jones, managing director, The Stand comedy club.

We will move straight to questions. I remind members that if they want to direct a question to a particular witness, I will ask that witness to answer first.

The Stove Network and the TMSA have talked about the importance of culture to wellbeing in our society, and the Government has indicated that it wants to move to a wellbeing society. I would like to hear first about the cultural social prescribing model mentioned in the Stove Network’s submission, and then about how the concept of a wellbeing society affects all your organisations. I will go first to Mr Baker and Ms Cullen, and will then bring in the other two witnesses for an industry view

I am also keen to think about how we can push for resources or where we should target them. In the evidence from the Stove Network, Matt Baker, you talk about the work of the culture collective and the Sistema model. What are the top priorities of investment in retaining people in employmentas well as keeping the sector going over the next year or two as we come through the pandemic?

I am afraid that we have lost Ms Campbell from the call again. Mr Cameron, do you want to come back in?