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In relation to workforce issues, the Department for Work and Pensions access to work programme offers people a lot of support in the workplace, such as support with travelling to work and the offer of support workers who can be with people full time. Is there enough knowledge of that support? Is it difficult to access? What work do you do with the DWP to ensure that people can access as much support as is available at the moment?

Good morning, minister. I am substituting today, so I am new to some of the agenda here. In your opening statement, you talked about the world-leading legislation that has been passed and the gap between ambition and implementation. I have been around for quite a while—I remember the first-ever autism strategy being launched and voting on some of the key pieces of legislation—and I am really concerned that implementation has not met that standard. I would like to find out more about data, how you will measure progress and the accountability mechanisms that will be built into the bill.

The specific example that I know most about, which is in education, is co-ordinated support plans for young people. Those are legislatively underpinned, but what happens on the ground is that people get a plan that is called anything but a co-ordinated support plan, which frustrates the whole process. We know that the Parliament has really struggled with post-legislative review. How will you ensure that the bill achieves the culture change that you are talking about among our delivery services and partners, such as the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, education services and the national health service?

I have had every assurance from those who have given evidence that the work has not stopped just because the bill has been delayed.

Thank you, convener. I have no relevant interests to declare.

Thank you all for attending. I remember speaking in the debate in 2020 and saying that I wanted the space to be a museum without walls along the model of the National Theatre of Scotland. We need to get that message out about it being everywhere but nowhere.

That said, I visited the Canadian museum for human rights in Winnipeg, where incredible work is done to recognise human rights issues not only for First Nations people but right the way through history and around the world. The museum recognises all the genocides, even the ones that we do not recognise. It was profound.

You have a difficult dilemma in trying to strike the balance, but I wish you all the best in progressing the work. We have taken on board everything that you said about what you want our asks of the Government and the cabinet secretaries to be.

Under our second agenda item, we will take evidence on the progress of the empire, slavery and Scotland’s museums project. We are joined by Lucy Casot, the chief executive of Museums Galleries Scotland, and Sheila Asante, its delivering change programme manager; and by Jatin Haria, the chair of the empire, slavery and Scotland’s museums steering group, and Zandra Yeaman, a member of the group.

I thank the witnesses for their attendance and for their joint submission. As outlined in our papers, we hope to cover your views on the Scottish Government’s response to the recommendations; the actions that have been taken by the museums sector; the next steps, including the work to scope a new organisation to lead on that work; progress on the delivering change project; and potential barriers to progress.

I will start by asking about barriers to progress. How content are you with the progress that has been made thus far to embed the recommendations? What do you see as the key stumbling blocks that might lie ahead? How proactive are the museums sector and individual museums in delivering the work?

Who will volunteer to answer first? I will put you on the spot, Lucy.

Jatin Haria wants to come back in, Stephen.

Good morning, and a warm welcome to the 26th meeting in 2024 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. We have received apologies from Keith Brown, and Jackie Dunbar is attending as his substitute. I invite Ms Dunbar to declare any relevant interests.

I also welcome Foysol Choudhury, who joins us as a substitute for Mr Bibby.

I put on record our thanks to Megan Caskie, who is, sadly, leaving us to take up a promoted post in the legislation team. I can say with confidence that our loss is the legislation team’s gain. On behalf of the committee, I thank Megan for her tremendous effort and wish her every success in her new role.

Our first agenda item is a decision on taking business in private. Are members content to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

The post-study work visa ,as it was, was made in Scotland initially, and we had an exception for that. It was then taken on and rolled out across the UK but was subsequently withdrawn, except in relation to Cambridge and Oxford. It is difficult to see the balance from a Scottish perspective, as the issue is complicated, and we have been impacted slightly differently by that process. However, the figures are interesting, nonetheless.

I am glad that Professor Portes and Professor Hall are still with us, as my question is probably best directed to you. It concerns the issue of data. We have heard that a lot of financial services are now going through Irish companies—those in the EU, so not Northern Ireland. We have also heard from the culture sector and touring artists that many of them are now joining Celtic-type festivals through an Irish base and that Scottish artists are losing out from that point of view. I want to get to the nub of whether there is any way of capturing that economic impact—the benefit to Ireland—or any way at all that we could expose or understand that data more broadly?