Chamber and committees

[Inaudible.]

That has exhausted my colleagues’ questions. I have a final one. How should I phrase it? You used the term “value for all” when you were talking about the financial constraints and the competition for audience numbers with commercial radio and all those other areas. Traditional folk music is the genre that I follow most among the ones that have been mentioned. It seems that the launch of “Transatlantic Sessions” and some of the other work that the BBC has done in those areas has built up to an incredibly strong offering in Scotland that includes the Celtic Connections festival. The worry is about being without that.

As a public sector broadcaster, you can have a role in nurturing talent that commercial stations cannot. With the launch of the new competitions, do you see jazz growing and the classical position being reinforced as a result? If I have understood correctly, you are running a Scottish classical competition as opposed to the standing BBC UK-wide one. I would just like a bit of reflection. We all love the culture from Scotland, but there is concern that that could be diminished. What would be a successful outcome of the strategy that you are planning?

Mr Carson, do you want a final word?

Thank you very much. I am sure that you will have seen the session that we had last week with some of the artists and institutions involved, who raised their concerns about the changes. I asked the members of that panel about the charter renewal, which was, I guess, the last big discussion that we had about these issues. At that time, Fiona Hyslop made it clear that it was really important that creative talent should be supported in Scotland, that the unique culture of Scotland be reflected, and that she expected the BBC to support that. Thinking about the internationally recognised status of our Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and about the fact that jazz is a big part of that, and recognising how successful the “Young Traditional Musician of the Year” programme is—I am glad to hear that that success has been replicated across other areas—do you feel that, in what will be happening, you will meet the charter objectives of that uniquely Scottish provision for a Scottish audience?

Mr Carson, do you want to comment?

That concludes the session. Thank you very much for your attendance.

Item 2 is to begin to take evidence on our new inquiry, which is focused on how devolution is changing post-European Union and how devolution should evolve to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the new constitutional landscape.

We are joined virtually by Huw Irranca-Davies MS, chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee, Senedd Cymru; William Wragg MP, chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, House of Commons; and Baroness Drake CBE, chair of the Constitution Committee, House of Lords. We welcome you all this morning and wish a belated happy St David’s day to our Welsh colleagues who are here today.

I will begin with an opening question, and then we will move to questions from committee members. The committee’s view is that there are fundamental concerns that need to be addressed in relation to how devolution works outside the EU. In particular, we have highlighted tensions between open trade and regulatory divergence within the UK internal market, tensions with the devolution settlement and tensions in the balance of power between executive and legislature in each of the four Parliaments across the United Kingdom. What are your views on the conventions and rules that may need to evolve to meet those challenges, particularly to ensure parliamentary scrutiny of decisions?

I invite Huw Irranca-Davies to open.

Thank you. I invite Baroness Drake to comment.

I am afraid that we are tight for time this morning, so I will have to draw our session to an end. I thank all the witnesses for their attendance. The deputy convener and I are looking forward to the next meeting of the interparliamentary forum in the coming weeks.

I suspend the meeting briefly to allow for a change of witnesses.

Finlay, did you want to come in there?