Chamber and committees

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.

Before you go on, Dr Allan, I should say that we are moving far away from the documents that are before us today, although I absolutely agree with the cabinet secretary’s comment that the situation is very much in flux with regard to the elements affecting the decision-making process.

Thank you very much. I call Ms Boyack.

Agenda item 2 is an evidence-taking session with the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture on the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021, the draft policy statement and the draft annual report. The cabinet secretary is joined, from the Scottish Government, by George Macpherson, the head of policy and alignment, and Lorraine Walkinshaw, from the legal directorate.

I welcome everyone to the meeting and invite the cabinet secretary to make an opening statement.