Chamber and committees

I am conscious of time, but Mr Ruskell wants to ask a question.

Under item 2, we have two panels on Channel 4. I welcome our first panel: John McVay, chief executive officer, Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television; Nicole Kleeman, managing director, Firecrest Films; and David Smith, director of screen, Screen Scotland. I give a warm welcome to you all virtually.

I will open with a question for David Smith. How would you describe the working relationship between Channel 4 and Screen Scotland? Can you give us an update on the memorandum of understanding between the two organisations?

Welcome back. Our second panel this morning is on Channel 4 and, indeed, it is members of Channel 4 who are here with us. We have Alex Mahon, chief executive; Jo Street, head of daytime and features and head of the Glasgow hub; and Briony Robinson, senior external affairs manager.

I hope that you were able to hear the first panel. Something that came through quite strongly for me was the importance of relationships and location in Scotland. Could you elaborate on FormatLab, the new partnership with BBC, Screen Scotland and Glasgow Council, and say how that might impact on the output from the Kelvin hall studios in particular?

I am conscious of time, so I ask people to try to be succinct.

Mr Lowe, I thank you and your officials for attending this session.

The committee will now consider its final agenda item in private.

Before Mark Ruskell comes back in, can I push you on the point that production in Scotland was not counted? Can you explain that? I am struggling to understand an example of what that would be.

Thank you for mentioning that. I have not been able to take it on board yet, but your report was mentioned on “Good Morning Scotland” this morning, and it sounds interesting.

I will push you a bit on that, then ask a more general question to the rest of the panel.

If Westminster Government plans go ahead, how do you see that relationship changing and what would be your concerns about it?

Ms Kleeman, what would you see as the major threats? Are there opportunities in what is proposed in the white paper?

I thank our witnesses for their attendance this morning and for their written submissions. It has been a really interesting discussion.