Chamber and committees

We will move online to Caroline Warburton.

It is a chicken and egg scenario. Which comes first?

I do not want to stop the discussion on this line of thought, but I want to say that we had a showcase outside the Parliament in which apprentices demonstrated slatework and stonework. Many of my colleagues will have been at that. It was interesting and wonderful to meet so many of the passionate apprentices in those areas.

Can you hear us, Caroline? We have probably lost you for the remainder of our time—I am sorry about that. If you want to give the committee feedback in writing on Ms Forbes’s question, that would be really helpful.

Does anyone else want to come in on that question?

I think that Caroline Warburton’s sound might be working again. Perhaps she would like to pick up on the points that were discussed earlier.

I will just add a supplementary before I bring in people to answer. Our predecessor committee had tourism as part of its remit. We do not have that now, but we still have major events, which fall under the cabinet secretary’s remit, and we also have the Scottish Government’s diaspora strategy, which has been talked about in terms of reach. Could we hear a little about how people are looking to that strategy? I know that the session is on the historic environment strategy, but how are those things being linked up?

I bring in Mark Ruskell. I am sorry—I forgot who was next.

Both Carolines would like to comment. We will go first to Caroline Clark, who is in the room.

I have a final question for Bryan Dickson. In your submission, you said that the strategy was quite vague on metrics to measure success. Could you expand on that? In particular, in our previous work and everything that we are doing as a wellbeing economy, embedding wellbeing into cultural activity has been a theme. Are there also metrics around the wellbeing key performance indicators?

Good morning, and a very warm welcome to the 32nd meeting in 2023 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. Our only agenda item today is evidence taking on “Our Past, Our Future: The Strategy for Scotland’s Historic Environment”, which was published in June.

We are delighted to be joined by Bryan Dickson, head of buildings conservation, National Trust for Scotland; Caroline Clark, director for Scotland, National Lottery Heritage Fund; Ailsa Macfarlane, director, Built Environment Forum Scotland; Lucy Casot, chief executive officer, Museums Galleries Scotland; Jocelyn Cunliffe, acting chairman, Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland; and Elaine Ellis, skills planning manager, Skills Development Scotland. We are joined remotely by Caroline Warburton, VisitScotland’s destination development director for central and north-east Scotland. A warm welcome to you all, and a huge thank you to those who have put in written submissions for today’s session.

This round-table session is intended to be slightly less formal than our usual meetings, and I hope that everyone will have a chance to participate in the discussion. Caroline Warburton, if you indicate online that you want to come in on any points, the clerks will let me know.

Our main focus will be your views on the sector’s three priority areas: the role of stakeholders in supporting the delivery of the strategy’s aims; monitoring progress and measuring success of the strategy; and potential blockages, risks to delivery or other concerns that you have. Are the priorities for the sector, as set out in the strategy, the right ones? Do you consider that the actions that are due to be undertaken will deliver against the priorities in the strategy?

First of all, I will go round the room and ask the witnesses to say, very briefly—because we will run out of time; we always do—a little bit about their organisation.

I come to Caroline Clark first.

We have talked about skills. Neil Bibby has some questions on that.