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Today’s session is focused on budgets, and on your budget in particular, so where do you see the spend from audience going? Are you concerned that the proportion of income that comes in from tickets and fees will be lower, and that you may feel pressure to step in further in the future?

Do you think that there is possibly going to be a gap going forward?

I am sure that that would be welcome. I would hope that it would be part of supporting the culture sector to make it as sustainable as possible and able to maximise that income.

I asked my question for a reason. We have seen some high-profile concerns relating to the licensing of short-term lets in Edinburgh and the impact that that might have on the fringe and the festival, in terms of people coming to the festivals, given the number of available lets.

Around a year and a half ago, I had a meeting in Fort William with organisations that were concerned about the visitor levy. They were not all directly involved in hospitality or providing accommodation—some of them were in ancillary parts of the industry that support people who come to the area and spend their money. Their concern was that if programmes such as the visitor levy take money out of people’s pockets, that will exacerbate the issues that those sectors already face.

Do you have concerns about that not only in Edinburgh but outwith the city and in the regions? If people have to pay a levy, they will not have as much money, and some of the money that they have may not go to your sector.

Are you having discussions with local authorities about that?

I am very conscious of time, but I want to ask about one more thing, which is the regional aspect. I represent a region that is full of remote, rural and island, communities. Do you have a breakdown of spend outwith the cities? I am thinking about the village halls and the small communities where culture is taken up or supported.

At the events and surgeries that I hold, I hear real concern about that issue. People are concerned that there will be centralisation as funds are constrained or focused elsewhere, and that some of those remote and rural communities will miss out. Are you able to break down where you spend?

Good morning. I am grateful that the cabinet secretary has agreed to come back to talk to us about the situation at Historic Environment Scotland. I appreciate the fact that he recognises that it is an important issue and that he recognises the importance of the cultural offering in Orkney, which I am always keen to highlight. I am sure that he will have enjoyed Orkney’s cultural offering in the past.

You mentioned some of the relationships that you have with other organisations, such as the enterprise bodies, in addition to those that you have with the likes of Creative Scotland. The budgets for some of our enterprise bodies are tighter and more focused, and local government budgets are under real pressure across Scotland. What are your thoughts on how that is having an impact on the culture sector? How are you trying to address that? What are your concerns in that regard?

Mr Harvie, you can go next.

You talked about closures. Across my region, I do a lot of surgeries in libraries because they are great locations. Often, they are not as full as I want them to be, because they are very important. People tell me that they do not know when their library will be open because of opening hours restrictions. Rather like banks and post offices, they are still there but they are open for only a few hours. Is that a big problem?

I suppose that I have the same question for you, Rachael. Orkney has some fantastic museums, such as the Pier arts centre in Stromness. At the Stromness museum, which is a private museum, you can see my great-great-uncle’s Scotland cap. It is definitely worth a visit.

However, there are real pressures. For a number of years, I dealt with the Falconer museum in Forres, which had to close due to the pressures that it faced, although it is about to reopen or become available again. Where do you see the pressures on museums and galleries from the local government funding side?

I am glad that you mentioned the Scapa Flow museum. I have been going there since I was a child. It sits across Scapa Flow from my home, and it is a fantastic new venue—perhaps it is not so much a new venue, but there is a new opportunity there.

This is the second part of the question—I will come to you on this, Rachael, and then I will come back to you, Alison, if that is all right. I represent a massive region, with very dispersed communities and huge rurality. How is that a particular issue for some of the organisations that you represent or work with? It is difficult enough to keep funding within a town or a city, but some rural institutions are extraordinarily important, particularly those on islands and so on, but they face difficult challenges with funding.