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David Hope-Jones, in your evidence you commented on the benefits to Malawi of an additional investment of £49 million on top of what is presumably quite a small amount of money. Can you say a bit more about how the wider approach to sustainable development that Lewis Ryder-Jones has just talked about and changing other Scottish Government policies could benefit people in Malawi?

From our experience and the discussions that we have had on internal markets and frameworks, it seems that there is a huge appetite from the business community and stakeholders to have advance sight of things—if people are to adapt to change, they are after as much information and as much of a heads-up as possible. That commitment to transparency, even in Government advice, is something that we would be very keen to see.

Lewis Ryder-Jones, you also talked about the importance of the value that comes from our international development funds and how we make the most of that. Can you say a bit more on that?

That takes me to my second question. One thing that has come through from all three witnesses is the importance of a broader approach, a sustainable development approach and a joined-up approach. I would like to hear a little bit more about how we get that change in other Government spending and Government policy that develops on sustainable development and feeds into international development ambitions that we have. I am not talking just the £15 million; rather, I am asking how we can get the rest of the Scottish Government’s money to play a positive part?

Mark Majewsky Anderson, I invite you to answer first. Earlier, you talked about how you deliver things on the ground and I would like you to talk about what sustainable development means for the further and higher education sector in an international development context.

On one level it does. I will follow it up. I was thinking about the publication of advice to different Governments. One of the things that has been apparent in devolution is that the Governments are watching each other. There is what you could call different best practice or different standards. To what extent is there scope for cross-UK sharing of knowledge and information about markets? Are you up for doing that and publishing your advice to different Governments?

I was looking for a final thought on how you communicate with stakeholders in Scotland. You have mentioned that Covid has been a challenge, but on another level it has made everybody digitally connected. Can you see opportunities for that communication to be more effective?

Thanks. That is very useful.

Mr Johnson, how do you make that sharing of access to information effective in a way that would be useful for stakeholders in Scotland and in other parts of the UK?

I thank the witnesses for their evidence this morning. It has been really useful.

I would like to follow up on an issue that we have been discussing for the past few weeks in our inquiry. We have heard a lot of evidence in recent weeks about how to enable scrutiny of the keeping pace legislation, alongside how to retain links across the EU. In the evidence that we received in a very good session last week, there was quite a focus on intergovernmental and interparliamentary contacts. A key issue that came out is that, in order to track what is happening, we need to keep an eye on European legislation, and about 1,000 pieces of legislation come out of Europe every year.

I will start with Mr Johnson. Can you reflect on what has changed in how you operate? How do you intend to communicate what is happening in Europe so that our businesses, civic community, parliamentarians and the Government can see what EU legislation is coming down the tracks in a way that would inform the discussion about where we want to keep pace, where we do not want to keep pace and what the implications are of that legislation. Can you assist us with that process of keeping pace around information, transparency and knowledge?

Yes, they were very helpful.

My question was about how you work out what is most significant, given that there might be business interests, for example. We think that some things that are important have not come through an initial tracking—that is one of the things that we are asking the cabinet secretary to look at. However, I was thinking about your role, as people who have contacts that you have developed over the years.

Dr Stein, you are in the Berlin office. How does it feel from your perspective? It was interesting to hear at last week’s meeting the perspective on some of this of a German MEP, David McAllister, who is chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. To what extent do we track stuff in different offices, and to what extent does information come through the Brussels office? What is your role and the role of officers like you across the EU?

Thank you, Mr Hall, for your written paper, which is very useful. I want to follow on from the comments that you have just made. In your written submission, you said that you see a major challenge in how things are developing, and that you think that common frameworks would be

“a more effective alternative to manage divergence, whilst respecting devolution, and so enable the UK Internal Market to operate without friction or distortion.”

Can you say a bit about the collective discussions that you have had on the farming side across the four nations of the UK, and what discussions you have had with the different Governments to get your view across?