Chamber and committees

No one is jumping in desperate to answer that one. It is interesting that Janet Archer, I think, mentioned the need for research in that area.

Under item 2, we will begin to take evidence as part of our pre-budget scrutiny on the culture spending portfolio. I welcome to the committee meeting Jim Hollington, who is chief executive of Dance Base; David Avery, who is negotiations officer at Prospect; Kirsty Cumming, who is chief executive of Community Leisure UK; Julia Amour, who is director of Festivals Edinburgh; and Janet Archer, who is chief executive of Edinburgh Printmakers and who is attending on behalf of Scotland’s Workshops.

I will start with a question on the cost of living crisis. We have received a great deal of evidence that has highlighted significant concerns about the increased operating costs that cultural organisations face, and it would be useful to hear what impact the crisis has had on the witnesses’ areas of interest. What can the Scottish Government do in its budget to support the culture sector during the cost of living crisis? The question goes first to Mr Hollington.

Dr Allan has a supplementary.

Thank you very much for your evidence this morning.

A few of our more subtle questions have asked what might influence people who are completing surveys. Earlier, you mentioned the number of surveys that families are receiving. Are those from local government or central Government, or are they just general ones? When might we know what policy decisions could have influenced returns? I am thinking of the participatory budgetary surveys that now regularly go out from councils, which might not be happening elsewhere in the country.

We have lost the sound for Sir Ian Diamond again. Go ahead, please.

I am looking to my colleagues to check, but I think that we have exhausted our questions. I thank both our witnesses for their attendance.

I am struggling slightly. Can we have the volume turned up, if possible? We might be able to fix the issue in the room. Please continue: it is probably just me.

As I have asked two questions in my first question, I will now move to other members of the committee, starting with Mr Cameron.

Good morning. I give a warm welcome to the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee’s 19th meeting in 2022. Under our first agenda item, do members agree to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Our second agenda item continues our work on Scotland’s census. We are joined remotely by two members of the National Records of Scotland international steering group. I warmly welcome Professor Sir Ian Diamond, the national statistician, from the UK Statistics Authority, and Professor David Martin, a professor of geography at the University of Southampton and deputy director of the UK Data Service. Good morning to you both.

I will begin with a couple of questions. When the Office for Statistics Regulation wrote to the National Records of Scotland on 17 August, it said:

“The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the change in both timing and mode of data collection to digital first mean that the context of this census is noticeably different from previous ones.”

That was not covered in your group’s response to the committee, which we thank you for, but you are very close to the topic. Will you elaborate on the context for the census and its differences from previous ones? I invite Sir Ian Diamond to go first. [Interruption.] We cannot hear you.

We are fine now.