Chamber and committees

This has been a fascinating evidence session. I thank all the witnesses for their attendance. We will have the BBC at the committee soon so that we can reflect on some of the issues we have covered today.

We have covered most of the areas that we wanted to cover. Scottish cultural identity and soft power have been mentioned and are really important.

I have a final quick question based on something that Professor Smith said. I will use one of his own concerts as my example. It was a collaboration with Tam Dean Burn on a jazz version of “Peter and the Wolf” in Scots. To my mind, that sums up all the issues of collaboration. How important are the innovative programmes and projects that are completely unique to Scotland?

Good morning, and a very warm welcome to the sixth meeting in 2023 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee.

Our first agenda item is to take evidence on the impact of the BBC’s digital-first agenda and Radio Scotland’s planned schedule changes to music programmes. We are joined by Professor Tommy Smith OBE, artistic director, Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, and head of jazz, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland; Finlay MacDonald, director of piping, the National Piping Centre; and Professor Simon McKerrell, professor in media and music, Glasgow Caledonian University. I give a warm welcome to you all.

I will ask the opening question. In 2016, when the BBC royal charter and framework agreement was reviewed, Fiona Hyslop said in the chamber of some of the objectives at the time:

“we expect the BBC to deliver better outcomes for audiences and implement commissioning and editorial practices that will support the growth and sustainability of Scotland’s creative industries.”—[Official Report, 6 October 2016; c 62.]

What are your reflections on the planned changes and the impact that they will have on the growth and sustainability of your particular areas of interest?

[Inaudible.]—agenda items 3 and 4 in private.

Members indicated agreement.

It appears that the microphone did not pick up what I said at the start of the meeting. Therefore, I must ask, for the sake of official parliamentary process, whether colleagues are content to take agenda items 3 and 4 in private. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

That exhausts our questions. I thank the minister and his colleagues for their attendance this morning. We look forward to having full participation in the events that you mentioned to mark a year since the start of the war, which we hope will be over as soon as possible.

I have a supplementary question about the “thank you” payments as they stand, minister. From what you said, my understanding is that there will be two levels and that hosts will qualify after 12 months. I know that some hosts will already be on a second or possibly third hosting arrangement. By its nature, there is a break in that process, so I am curious to know how that has been managed, if there is a 12-month limit. That seems strange, because people are incurring expenses in the here and now. That disparity could discourage people from stepping up.

Mr Cameron has a question.

Thank you, minister. I will open by asking about the length of time that this is taking. At the very start, the expectation was that this would be about temporary and short-term support for Ukrainian people, as it was considered that the war would not last for very long. That has significantly changed and people are moving from what was considered to be a very short-term option to, realistically, looking to be in Scotland for perhaps a considerable time. Of course, we want it to be as short a time as possible.

People are moving from hotels and the ships into more permanent accommodation, and we are now hitting the six-month time where initial hosting arrangements may not continue for whatever reason. We therefore have a bit of a pinch point for the services, and we are still receiving more Ukrainians—of course, we do not know what the scale of that might be. I also understand from the Ukrainian consul that there are people who have received visas to come here who have yet to come.

I wondered whether your plans have changed and the policies have developed over time, and whether you are now looking at a different model.

Thank you. We will move to questions from the committee.