Chamber and committees

On that note, I bring the session to an end. I thank all the witnesses for their attendance and for their helpful submissions to the committee.

I have a couple of final questions. Mr Leheny, you talked about the freight companies increasingly choosing to use the port at Cairnryan as a route from GB and the impact that that is having elsewhere. Do you have any concerns about capacity? Neither road route from Cairnryan, either to the south or to the north on the A77, is particularly good, but what are the capacity issues at the port? Are you concerned about that?

I will roll two issues into one question, because we are up against time. The internal market act did not receive consent from the Scottish Parliament, and I believe that a judicial review is on-going in Wales. How precarious is the situation, depending on the outcome of that court case?

We have talked a lot about the interparliamentary forum and ways of scrutinising. My understanding is that we have the power to scrutinise Scottish Government ministers’ actions in these areas but, as soon as executive power is used in a devolved area, we are not able even to call a UK Government minister to appear before a scrutinising committee of the Scottish Parliament. Should arrangements relating to security and transparency in such areas be formalised, perhaps through a change in the law? Even the interparliamentary forum is not yet a formal arrangement between the Parliaments. How could arrangements be firmed up to ensure that there is absolute certainty that the devolved nations can scrutinise in such areas?

Does Professor Weatherill want to come in?

I thank our panel, Dr Hughes, Dr Marks and Professor Pittock. We have had an informative session. By way of information, we will be taking evidence on 16 December from Scotland House and the Brussels, London and Berlin hubs, to add to our inquiry. The committee has also undertaken to continue committee engagement with the presidency of the EU as it changes, as we did when we were a member state.

That concludes this morning’s session on our inquiry into the Scottish Government’s international work.

There are a couple of additional questions. We are at the point in the meeting when I have to ask for concise questions and answers, if possible, please.

Good morning and welcome to this meeting of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. Agenda item 1 today is to decide whether to take an item of business in private. Do members agree to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

The committee is conducting an inquiry into the Scottish Government’s international work. The aim of the inquiry is to consider how the Scottish Government engages internationally and what it wants to achieve from that work. That includes its European Union and wider international engagement, its support for international development and how its external affairs policies interact with United Kingdom Government policies in those areas.

I am delighted to welcome the committee’s first panel on this topic: Dr Kirsty Hughes, who is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; Dr Adam Marks, who is the international policy executive at the Law Society of Scotland; and Professor Murray Pittock, University of Glasgow, who is co-chair of the Scottish Arts and Humanities Alliance. Thank you for the written submissions that you sent before this morning’s meeting.

We will move directly to questions. I will open with a question for everyone. What challenges and risks does the Scottish Parliament face in relation to the post-Brexit situation, the EU-UK trade and co-operation agreement—TCA—governance structures, and political and policy dialogue that might result in fewer opportunities for devolved institutions to input than before Brexit? I invite your reflections on that.

Which of the witnesses do you want to answer first, Mr Ruskell?

We move to questions from the committee. I remind members to say who their questions are for or to select which member of the panel they would like to answer first.