Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee

Meeting date: Thursday, January 31, 2019

Official Report 563KB pdf

European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018

Creative Europe Programme and Europe for Citizens Programme Revocation (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Good morning and welcome to the fourth meeting in 2019 of the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee. I remind members and the public to turn off their mobile phones. Any members using electronic devices to access committee papers during the meeting should ensure that they are switched to silent. Apologies have been received from Claire Baker MSP—Neil Findlay MSP is joining us in her place—Jamie Greene MSP and Kenneth Gibson MSP.

The first agenda item is consideration of a statutory instrument that has been proposed by the United Kingdom Government. By agreeing to the Creative Europe Programme and Europe for Citizens Programme Revocation (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, we would consent to the United Kingdom Government legislating using the powers under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. The new regulations will create a UK-wide spending power that, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, will allow the UK Government to fund UK organisations that have been awarded funds from those EU programmes.

We have received a notification document, and the committee has been asked to consider the SI consent notification and determine what it would like to do. Do members have any comments on the notification?

This is the first such notification that the committee has received. Given that the Government’s position on the implications for devolved areas is not clear, it would be useful to ask it to provide us with further information and clarification.

The funds come through the creative Europe office, which is in Scotland. I was struck by the fact that the effect of the SI would be that the funds would come through the UK. That is unprecedented in the area of culture, which is, of course, devolved.

I see that no one else has any comments. We have a number of options. We could write to the Scottish Government to confirm that we are content for consent to be given, or we could request further information from the Scottish Government—indeed, we could take evidence from it on the consent notification.

I would like to ask for more information from the Scottish Government. Do members agree to that approach?

Members indicated agreement.

We will have a short suspension to allow our witnesses for the next item to take their seats.