Chamber and committees

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?

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?