Chamber and committees

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.

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?