Chamber and committees

Welcome back. Agenda item 3 is the final session of our inquiry into the Scottish Government’s international work. We are joined by the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Angus Robertson MSP; John Primrose, deputy director of international relations, Scottish Government; and, in a change to the witnesses for technical reasons, Neil Watt, head of European engagement, Scottish Government. I welcome you all to the meeting.

I thank the cabinet secretary for being with us and invite him to make an opening statement.

I have a final question for Mr Hampson, which touches on my first question. As the relationships have been changing so much, it is perhaps interesting to probe some of the weaknesses that we had previously. I do not want in any way to diminish the absolute success of the summer festivals in Edinburgh, but we also have other festivals in Scotland. One example is the Wigtown book festival at one end of the country, but I am thinking more specifically of the St Magnus festival in Orkney. How might we take advantage of the Nordic relationships and the Copenhagen office to build the status of the other festivals across Scotland more widely so that we do not always think of the summer festivals being Edinburgh?

Our next item is our inquiry into the Scottish Government’s international work. For the committee’s fifth panel on the topic, we will hear from James Hampson, who is the director for the United Kingdom region and external affairs at the British Council; and Professor Andrea Nolan, who is the convener of Universities Scotland’s international committee. I welcome you both and thank you for the comprehensive written briefings that you have provided to the committee.

We will move to questions. I remind everyone that we have to hear from two panels this morning, so I ask our witnesses to try to keep their contributions concise. That also applies to committee members in asking their questions.

I will open with a question for Mr Hampson about education. As I was the convener of the Education and Skills Committee in the previous session of Parliament, I have a strong interest in the area. I want to ask about the work on schools engagement, which you described in your written submission. With schools, initiatives tend to be driven forward by leadership at local authority level or by head teachers. Are all local authorities engaging with the British Council in that work, or is there a geographic element to engagement with the British Council on the schools exchange programmes and projects that are on offer?

The cabinet secretary spoke about the time, and members should also be mindful of that. Two other members have questions.

Thank you very much for those responses. We move to questions from committee members, and I invite Mr Golden to begin the questioning.

We have a few more minutes, so it is fine if you want to ask it.

I invite Dr Allan to ask his questions.

That is great.

I thank both the witnesses for attending the committee. It has been immensely helpful. I also thank them for their submissions, which were helpful.

I suspend the meeting until 10.15 am, when we will resume for our session with the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture.

10:15 On resuming—  

Good morning. I wish everyone a very warm welcome to the fourth meeting in 2022 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. Our first agenda item is a decision on whether to take business in private. Do members agree to take item 4 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

That is absolutely fine—thank you.

I have a question for Professor Nolan. Again, from my previous experience, I know that we very much valued the Erasmus programme in Scotland, and many witnesses have lamented its loss. Will you expand a little on what your aims are for an ideal new mobility scheme? Will you give a little insight into what funding and back-up the scheme might require?