Chamber and committees

Thank you. I will add a bit of context around the games industry. A lot of the skills involved in games development are similar to those in the screen industry.

It is an issue that the committee has discussed in private, because the games industry has fallen between certain areas—it is not fully tech and it is not fully culture. For your information, we have been talking about it in the context of the wellbeing society, and how people consume and spend their time. We have discussed how the big Comicon events and gaming competitions fit into the culture portfolio. That issue is not for today, but it brings me to more localised questions, not about Edinburgh but from Dr Allan.

Cabinet secretary, can you just confirm that you referred to a meeting of the British-Irish Council?

Thank you for clarifying that.

I invite Donald Cameron to come in.

Item 2 is a Scottish Government update. We will take evidence from Angus Robertson, the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, on the Scottish Government’s priorities relating to the remit of the committee. The cabinet secretary is joined by Donald Cameron, who is the deputy director of the constitution and United Kingdom relations division, and Euan Page, who is the head of UK frameworks. Welcome to the committee. I invite Mr Robertson to make an opening statement.

I hope that we can ask questions in a logical order this morning. Obviously, the committee has a wide remit, so we will start with the constitution, move on to Europe and external relations and then finish with culture. I hope that that is helpful to know. Members should bear that in mind when they are requesting supplementary questions.

I open by thanking the cabinet secretary for your letter last week to the committee that explained the Scottish Government’s position on a lot of the issues. In it, you state:

“Work is ongoing to fully map out and understand the Act’s impact: it will take time to fully grasp its implications”.

Will you say a little bit more about that work and whether it will be published and made available to the committee for scrutiny?

Yes, indeed.

We will now move on to the culture part of the committee’s remit, which the cabinet secretary mentioned. I invite Ms Webber to open the questioning.

We may have exhausted the questions. It has been quite an eclectic session.

Thank you, cabinet secretary. We have covered a broad range of topics. We have had two touring funds, two gaming industries and two Donald Camerons and we have still managed to get here. We thank you and your officials for your attendance.