Chamber and committees

Mr McManus, do you want to come in on that subject?

Thank you. Your final comment goes into an area that we have not been able to touch on today, which is the importance of the cultural community to the wellbeing economy agenda. In our budget scrutiny, we are focusing on funding for the culture sector, but we have already seen how many other areas it picks up on, including the fair work agenda. We also did not talk about the climate or the net zero targets and how they will affect touring companies and the industry in general, but there is a lot there to discuss.

This is pre-budget scrutiny as the budget is yet to be published, but a touring fund was announced in the programme for government. Also, given that the subject came up, I note that the Government has said that it is committed to providing regular funding by agreeing three-year funding settlements. I am sure that the committee will be interested to see the detail of that, given the evidence that we have heard today.

I thank Mr McManus and Mr Dallman very much for their attendance.

Mr Ruskell, do you have a small supplementary question?

I thank you and Ms Tavaziva for your contributions this morning. I suspend the meeting for five minutes while witnesses are swapped over.

Welcome back. Our next item is pre-budget scrutiny of culture sector funding. As part of its pre-budget scrutiny work, the committee is looking at the continuing impact of Covid-19 on the culture sector and its longer-term future.

This morning, the committee will hear from Paul McManus, negotiations officer for Scotland at the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union, and Barry Dallman, acting regional organiser for Scotland and Northern Ireland at the Musicians Union. I welcome them both to the meeting and thank them—and others—for the written evidence provided for today’s session.

Given the time constraints, we will move straight to questions. I note that Ms Boyack is appearing remotely. I remind members to direct their question to a particular witness. That will be helpful.

We move to questions from Sarah Boyack, who joins the meeting remotely.

Agenda item 1 is to decide whether to take item 4 in private. Do members agree to consider our work programme in private following today’s public meeting and at future meetings?

Members indicated agreement.

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?