Seòmar agus comataidhean

I am sure that you will keep the committee updated on the results of that work or on the progress in making something like that happen.

Finally, I want to ask for an assurance that, at your meeting with the board to discuss the situation, you will raise the possibility of the staff who have just lost their jobs being directly involved in the discussion and of your being able to contact them to at least explore the possibility that they could have a role in whatever comes next.

Thank you.

Are you confident that that process will enable them to avoid making immediate changes of the kind that we have been warned about, such as moving to a freelance model instead of a salaried model?

Thank you. I am sure that you will want to keep the committee updated as those conversations progress.

I have one final question—I will try to make it brief. It is on the external affairs part of your portfolio.

The committee is obviously not unanimous on the Scottish Government’s external affairs engagement; there are those who seem to question whether it should happen at all. However, I think that there is a clear majority in Parliament for the backing of a strong and assertive approach to external affairs by the Scottish Government.

I would like to understand what is going on with the budget, not just in 2026-27 but in the spending review as well. It is going up from the £26.7 million that was budgeted for—it is slightly lower in the outturn—to £34.5 million in the budget for 2026-27. However, the spending review shows a decline for each of the subsequent two years. The spending review is a bit of a first draft—it is not a fixed, committed budget, and it might change over the next couple of years. However, can you give us an understanding of why there is an increase in one year, followed by a couple of decreases?

That would be appreciated. We are in a changing world, and Scotland faces changing pressures, opportunities and threats. It is clear that, in future years, the Scottish Government should retain a strong commitment not only to things such as international development aid but to ensuring that Scotland’s voice is heard on the world stage.

Thank you, convener.

Good morning. You will appreciate that, as a member of the committee who is a Glasgow MSP, I want to pursue the same issue. We are looking at the budget for 2026-27, which allocates nearly £1.3 million for the CCA. You are the landlord—the owner of the building—and you have money allocated to support the building. It seems to me that, notwithstanding the failure of the CCA as an organisation, you are in a very strong position to move forward and to ensure that the facility—the building—can be brought back to life in some form or other as rapidly as possible. I would be really concerned if a post-mortem on the CCA as an organisation ended up delaying progress on bringing the building back into use in some capacity.

It seems to me that the best thing that we could do quickly is to reach out to the staff who have lost their jobs and gauge their capacity and their interest in establishing a new worker-led organisation that would retain the skills and experience of that group of people. That would be the fastest way to bring the CCA back to life, or to bring its successor to life, to the benefit of the cultural life of our city. Have you explored that? Would the budget that is allocated for 2026-27 enable a rapid pathway to that?

As I understand it, you have, in effect, provided the building to the organisation at a peppercorn rent, as well as providing funding. Would that still be part of the offer that would be available to a successor organisation?

Good morning. I want to ask about three separate issues, so I will try to be quite tight on each one. We have just had Creative Scotland with us, and I and another member asked about the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow. You will obviously be very aware—in fact, according to press reports, you were aware some days before the news broke—that the CCA has gone into liquidation.

I put it to Iain Munro that, although there will obviously be questions about the CCA as an organisation and how things got to where they are, that must not be a barrier to bringing the building back into use as a cultural facility for Glasgow and giving it a new lease of life. Mr Munro seemed to agree with that. I would argue that parachuting in management consultants and the like has not been very successful, and that an organisation that is rooted in the cultural and artistic community and its values is far more likely to navigate some of the pressures, including some of the external tensions that have been problematic in recent times for the CCA.

I asked Mr Munro whether he would explore with the board the option of a worker-led approach that involves reaching out to staff who have just lost their jobs and exploring their interest and capacity in taking something forward and being directly involved in a new organisation that would bring the building back to life. As Creative Scotland is both the funder and the landlord, it is in a very strong position to help to make that happen. I ask for your support in at least exploring the option of a more worker-led future for the CCA to consider whether that would be more successful in navigating some of the pressures that have been problematic in recent years.

As a Government that believes in fair work and recognises the challenges and difficulties of creating a fair work culture in the creative industries, surely you think that there is a strong argument for saying that there ought to be some prominent role for the people who have just lost their jobs, not only in order to do justice for them but for the sake of retaining their skills and experience. At least there should be a reaching out to them to see whether that can be made possible.