Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning, and welcome to the 24th meeting in 2022 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. I have received apologies from the convener, who, unfortunately, cannot join us. I know that Clare Adamson would have wanted very much to be here, as she sponsored the cultural leadership dialogue event on Ukraine in the Parliament in August. I know that many people in the room also attended that event.

Consideration of links with and support for Ukrainian culture is our only agenda item today, which is quite unusual for the committee. I am delighted to say that we are joined by a number of witnesses who will take part in a round-table discussion. I welcome Tetyana Filevska, the creative director of the Ukrainian Institute; David Codling, the director of the UK/Ukraine season of culture 2022 at the British Council; Anna Bubnova, the head of arts at the British Council; Daria Bondarenko, the international project manager for the Ukrainian Freedom Ballet; George Findlater, the head of community and economic development at Historic Environment Scotland; and Professor Jeffrey Sharkey, the principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

I suggest that our discussion be informed by the themes from the cultural leadership dialogue event that I just mentioned and that we structure the discussion in three parts: people, places and partnerships. I will begin with a question at the start of each theme before I bring in witnesses and colleagues. I do not want to constrain the conversation, and our guests should feel free to raise whatever issues they feel are relevant, because we are not technically bound by strict limits. There might be a fair bit of crossover between the themes.

The discussion group on the theme of people at that event in Parliament was focused

“on ways to sustain and develop individual professional cultural careers disrupted by the invasion.”

I want to ask each of our guests about that quotation. How can we best achieve that? How can we best sustain and develop individual careers that have been disrupted? I will bring in Tetyana Filevska first.

Mr McQueen, to go back to Pauline McNeill’s point about the key reforms in Lady Dorrian’s review, I am keen to explore how and why those will have an impact. Do you have a separate budget for those reforms, and has that been evaluated? Have you already received money to implement the reforms, and are you now saying that you could not use that money for that? That is a very basic question, but could you clarify the issue?

I refer to my entry in the register of members’ interests as a member of the Faculty of Advocates.

It is important to note that the politics in Northern Ireland and in the UK are moving very quickly. We know that negotiations between the UK Government and the European Union have been renewed. I think that the new Prime Minister has said that he prefers a negotiated solution to the dispute over the protocol. There is a general feeling that a pragmatic approach might render this legislation redundant.

That said, I will focus on the areas in the bill that suggest pragmatic solutions to the various issues, including the red and green lane issues, the dual regulatory regime and the governance arrangements. If we set aside the concerns, important as they are, about the legalities and issues of delegated powers, do the witnesses feel that there are areas of pragmatic compromise in the bill that are useful?

I hear that and, as a lawyer and a politician, I acknowledge those points, but, for instance, Stuart Anderson of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which represents Northern Ireland businesses, has said that some of the practical proposals in the bill will help consumer-facing businesses. Ultimately, this is a practical political problem that needs to be solved. Do you have any comments on those practical proposals as potential areas of compromise that could help to solve this problem?

Can I turn to Professor Barnard, who I think is joining us by audio link?

I was very glad to hear at the outset of your comments that you acknowledge the change of tone, because I think that that is true. I think that there is a change of tone and that the new Prime Minister will adopt a more pragmatic approach. I am going to ask the same question of you that I asked the panel earlier, which is that the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill—and we debated this in June—contains various pragmatic proposals, such as the red/green lane and the dual regulatory regime. From the Scottish Government’s perspective, do you see any mileage in those as being viable solutions to the very knotty problems that exist?

I will turn to Mr Booth to get a local government perspective on that.

Good morning to the panel. I would like to develop the convener’s initial question about funding. The importance of flexibility of funding was a message that many of the people who have given evidence to the committee have broadcast to us. We heard quite bleak evidence, which you have already alluded to, Mr Munro, about the current state of morale and the reality that our cultural organisations face—some of them have no option but to consider reducing their offer, whatever it might be.

The convener mentioned multiyear funding, but other approaches have also been raised with us, such as the ability to build up reserves over the years, the spend-to-save approach and so on. As funders, what can you do to facilitate greater flexibility of funding? I will start with Mr Munro.

Good morning. My question is not specifically on a budgetary matter, but the issue came up in evidence last week. Alex Paterson of Historic Environment Scotland said that around 60 historic sites are closed to the public or have restricted public access. We will all have examples of that in the regions or constituencies that we represent. There has also been talk of a policy of managed decline. We all understand that those sites must be safe for visitors and staff, but what action is the Scottish Government taking to help HES accelerate the inspection, fixing and reopening of those sites?

I have one further short point for Mr Munro. You will be aware of the youth music initiative and the reports around its funding. I want to give you the opportunity to clarify the position on that for the committee.