Chamber and committees

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

Agenda item 1 is a decision on taking business in private. Do members agree to take item 4 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

I invite Mr Wragg to comment.

Thank you. I will move to questions from members.

Louise Thornton, you said that you have to go where the audience is. Are audience numbers the main driver in decision making?

I should have said to the panel that, if you want to come in on any of the questions that have been directed to someone else, you can indicate that by putting an R in the chat function. I am not sure what the R means; it might mean raise a hand. Our clerks will be monitoring that and will bring you in as best they can.

Agenda item 3 is an evidence session on the proposed schedule changes to Radio Scotland’s music programmes within the context of the impact of the BBC’s digital-first agenda on broadcasting output in Scotland. We are joined this morning by Steve Carson, director of BBC Scotland, and Louise Thornton, BBC Scotland’s head of commissioning. I invite Mr Carson to make an opening statement.

We are running out of time—sorry. We are facing the usual Thursday morning challenges. We move to Ms Boyack.

[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?