Chamber and committees

I have a supplementary question about visas. I am finding the conversation quite fascinating. Prior to Brexit, Scotland had a post-study work visa. You were talking about Erasmus+ not being of economic value, but the post-study work visa was incredibly valuable and incredibly important here. It was initially adopted and rolled out across the UK and then scrapped but retained for Oxford and Cambridge universities. I guess that there is a sense of—I will just say it—grievance in Scotland as to how that was arrived at.

You said that this was all about building a free capitalist economy. Is the Government’s decision last week to shut down the investor visa route with immediate effect, which could limit capital investment, counterintuitive to the stated aims of Brexit?

That goes a bit far from our remit at the moment. I am conscious that this committee might not even consider that bill. If you do not mind, I will ask the witnesses to follow up in writing with an answer to that if they want to do so.

I am conscious of time, so I will move on to Mr Cameron.

I am looking around, but I do not think there are any further questions from the committee this morning. Thank you very much for your attendance. Professor, we will make sure that the link that you put into the chat is circulated to the committee this morning. On that note, I will suspend to allow our witnesses to change over.

I apologise to Anand Menon. I did not mean to not have a good poker face. I was just surprised by what he said, as it is not my experience. I am sure that some committee members will comment on the subject. The context is that, on Tuesday this week, the Scottish Parliament rejected the legislative consent memorandum on the Nationality and Borders Bill, and I was thinking about our discussions and how much immigration features in what we do.

We move on to questions from committee members, starting with Mr Ruskell.

I think that that has exhausted questions from the committee this morning. I thank you very much for your attendance and also for your very helpful submissions, which have been referenced by many colleagues.

Item 2 is on a different topic: our consideration of the Scottish Government’s resource spending review. I welcome to the committee Diana Murray, fellow, Royal Society of Edinburgh, and Robbie McGhee, chair, Arts Culture Health & Wellbeing Scotland. We will move straight to questions, due to time constraints. I ask that witnesses consider being concise, if possible.

Mr McGhee, you say in your submission that the barriers to realising the wider benefits of culture are not just financial and you call for a cultural shift to ensure that health practitioners, teachers and the wider public sector are aware of the benefits of “a cross-portfolio approach”. How can we bring about that culture shift?

We move to questions from the committee, starting with Mr Golden.

Good morning and welcome to the sixth meeting in 2022 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee.

I am minded to note that the committee would like to express its solidarity with the people of Ukraine. We wish for a speedy and peaceful recovery from the precarious situation that they find themselves in at the moment.

Agenda item 1 is an opportunity for the committee to hear more about UK in a Changing Europe and its regulatory divergence tracker. I welcome our witnesses from UK in a Changing Europe: Professor Anand Menon, director, and Joël Reland, researcher.

I will start off with a couple of questions. Will you give us your perspective on how the United Kingdom Government is choosing to exercise its regulatory autonomy following Brexit? Which policy areas might be most suited to regulatory divergence?

I am sorry to interrupt you, cabinet secretary, but I want to make it clear that we are not taking evidence on the proposed Brexit freedoms bill today. We are focusing on our inquiry into the Scottish Government’s international work and the operation of its international offices. Although I appreciate that there is an overlap between those areas, because of time constraints, I would appreciate it if you could concentrate on the subject of our inquiry.

Thank you, cabinet secretary. We will move straight to questions, starting with Dr Allan.