Seòmar agus comataidhean

I hope that we can ask questions in a logical order this morning. Obviously, the committee has a wide remit, so we will start with the constitution, move on to Europe and external relations and then finish with culture. I hope that that is helpful to know. Members should bear that in mind when they are requesting supplementary questions.

I open by thanking the cabinet secretary for your letter last week to the committee that explained the Scottish Government’s position on a lot of the issues. In it, you state:

“Work is ongoing to fully map out and understand the Act’s impact: it will take time to fully grasp its implications”.

Will you say a little bit more about that work and whether it will be published and made available to the committee for scrutiny?

Yes, indeed.

We will now move on to the culture part of the committee’s remit, which the cabinet secretary mentioned. I invite Ms Webber to open the questioning.

We may have exhausted the questions. It has been quite an eclectic session.

Thank you, cabinet secretary. We have covered a broad range of topics. We have had two touring funds, two gaming industries and two Donald Camerons and we have still managed to get here. We thank you and your officials for your attendance.

Thank you. I move to questions from members.

Mr Robertson, I am not sure where that time limit has come from. We are happy to continue. If you were under the impression that you had only an hour and now need to go, that is fine, but the committee thought that the session would be 90 minutes.

Your answer was relevant, because you talked about funding that comes from the lottery.

Good morning, and a very warm welcome to the second meeting in session 6 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. I remind all members to switch their mobile phones off or to silent, so as not to disturb the meeting.

Our first item is to decide whether to take item 3, on consideration of our work programme, in private. Are members agreed to take the item in private?

Members indicated agreement.

I thank everyone for making so many interesting points. I am glad to see that the importance of interparliamentary working came to the fore for most of you, because I am conscious that we need to work hard on that. I am delighted that there is consensus around building those relationships across the UK and in the wider context.

I have reflected on Patrick Harvie’s comments about culture. I think that the legacy report of the Education and Culture Committee, which I sat on for a long time, might have been instrumental in culture having been moved away from the education portfolio and put with the Europe portfolio, which I thought was a better fit. That being said, on crossover work, Alasdair Allan and I sat on a committee that did a substantial piece of work on music tuition in schools and its cultural aspects.

The European aspect of the committee has always had that overarching and cross-parliamentary responsibility, and that has worked well in the past. The conveners have been able to work together through the conveners group and the clerks to ensure that there has been no conflict with the other committees, and I am keen for that to continue.

When we consider culture, we sometimes concentrate on the big-ticket items such as the major festivals, the larger organisations and those that get more funding. I was therefore taken to hear that culture in the community is of interest to Ms Minto and Ms Boyack. I am keen to investigate that, too.

To pull together some of these strands, we have a definite role to play in how devolution works in a post-Brexit world. The Parliament was established in a very different constitutional context from the one we are in now, and we might have a role in looking at whether the operations of the Scottish Parliament are fit for purpose in some of those relations as we go forward.

There are some really interesting issues to be going on with. I thank Patrick Harvie for bringing the BBC situation to our attention. I understand that all members have had the opportunity to view the draft letter on that. If anyone is not happy with that letter being sent, could they put an N in the chat box? I see that we are agreed that that letter, as drafted by the clerks, will go to the BBC.

I have also been reminded that there was an announcement this morning on the possible privatisation of Channel 4, which will have an impact on its footprint in Scotland. That is an issue that the committee might want to look at that has immediately come to the fore.

I think that we have given the clerks enough to think about. I look forward to coming back in August for our work programme meeting. That will probably be a full day of discussions of proposals. We might well have an indication of the programme for government and some likely bills that might come to the committee by then, but we have enough to be going on with for now.

That concludes our business for today. Thank you for your attendance. I am really looking forward to taking this very exciting opportunity for the committee to do some really good work.