Absolutely—I am happy to—but I am sure that Sarah Boyack understands that we are still in the middle of a process of trying to understand the course of action that is being pursued by the UK Government. We are trying to work with the UK Government to understand how things will proceed. As soon as we have clarity on that, we will be able to come back to Parliament. I wish to be able to do that as soon as possible.

In my opening speech, I mentioned that, since 2018, the Parliament has been ignored on six occasions when voting to withhold consent to a UK Government bill. Regardless, I urge members to vote in favour of the motion that is before us and to agree with the recommendation to withhold consent for the bill. The UK Government may not be listening, but the people of Scotland are: workers whose employment rights are at risk because of the bill will hear; consumers who want higher food standards will hear; those who benefit from and value the high quality of the Scottish environment will hear; and businesses wanting to avoid even more barriers to accessing the European market will hear, too.

I urge the Parliament to add its voice to the already loud chorus from those across Scotland and the United Kingdom who are opposed to the bill, and to vote in favour of the motion.

It is not surprising that investment has underperformed since the Brexit referendum. Many businesses in Scotland continue to report additional challenges, barriers and trade costs due to Brexit, which will inevitably act as a constraint on business investment in Scotland. Previous Scottish Government analysis has shown that Scotland’s business investment could be 7.7 per cent lower in the long run due to Brexit.

I am happy to do so. Neil Gray has already given that commitment to the committee, and I repeat it now.

As Neil Gray said in his opening remarks, in September 2022 we announced up to £50 million of capital investment to help to bring empty properties back into use. Alongside that, we continue to recruit volunteer hosts, and we have launched a campaign to secure more hosts. We will continue to do all that we can to ensure that the people from Ukraine who come to Scotland are met with a warm welcome and a package of support that allows them to integrate into our communities and build a new life here.

Our close working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, local authorities in general and the third sector has been a key success factor, and we will continue to work in partnership to deliver integrated services that have at their heart dignity and respect for the Ukrainian people.

As we have heard, it is Scottish society and communities the length and breadth of Scotland that have the most to gain from the contributions and experience that displaced people from Ukraine have to offer. Great societies are those that embrace immigration and integration and those that encompass the diversity of humanity within their fabric. Displaced people from Ukraine have already become a mainstay in our communities and have brought with them a wealth of experience in many fields from education and academia to healthcare and business management.

I want to ensure that we do all that we can to make displaced people from Ukraine feel welcome in our communities and that we continue to recognise the contributions that they make.

I reiterate sentiments that have been offered previously on behalf of the Scottish Government. We remain clear that all Ukrainians who have made Scotland their temporary home will be welcome for as long as they need. We stand with you. Slava Ukraini. Heroiam slava.

It has been a very moving and unified debate that we have heard from all sides of the chamber, particularly redolent for me as the son of a war refugee who came to these shores 76 years ago. I begin by reflecting on the contributions of others.

First, I thought that Donald Cameron made a very powerful and moving contribution. He had very gracious words to say about the Scottish Government. I know that that cannot come easily at the best of times, but he was exceptionally gracious about the Scottish Government in general and my ministerial colleague Neil Gray in particular. That gives me the rare opportunity, in return, to praise the UK Government’s commitment to providing the weapons that are needed by Ukraine and for providing the training for Ukrainian personnel. I take the opportunity, in particular, to mention in dispatches the defence secretary and former member of the Scottish Parliament, Ben Wallace, for the role that he is playing in that.

I thank Sarah Boyack, who spoke of solidarity and praised the cross-party, cross-parliamentary agreement that we have been hearing on the issue, for her welcome for the additional support that was announced today, which is targeted at winterisation, resilience and rebuilding in Ukraine. She underlined the constructive role of Opposition in a democracy in making us go further and faster. I invite her to keep up the good work on that front, as well.

Alex Cole-Hamilton, other MSPs, Scottish Government ministers and thousands of people across Scotland are hosting Ukrainians in their homes. Mr Cole-Hamilton powerfully illustrated the human loss and the experience of Russia’s invasion, which, we should remember, did not start last year but started in 2014, with the invasion of Crimea and the Donbas region, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

I commend Fiona Hyslop’s long-standing commitment to Ukraine, as I do that of Stewart McDonald MP. Ms Hyslop and a number of us are sanctioned by the Putin regime; we wear that sanction as a badge of honour. Ms Hyslop spoke, too, of the energy security that Scotland and northern Europe could help provide to continental Europe. I hope that that is something that we can develop an understanding of, as Scotland has a lot to offer as we move forward with developing our renewables—our hydrogen potential in particular.

I would like to mention by name Annie Wells, Bill Kidd, Carol Mochan, Clare Adamson, Meghan Gallagher, Ross Greer, Paul O’Kane, Bob Doris, Foysol Choudhury and Sharon Dowey, whose contributions this afternoon have been exemplary.

If the past year has shown us anything, it has been that not only Scotland but the whole of Europe and the west is united in supporting Ukraine’s democracy, its sovereignty and its independence. It has been a year since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. In that time, we have witnessed the brutality of that unprovoked attack on a peaceful nation. This anniversary is a chance for us to stand united, as we are, and reflect on the impact that this past year has had on the people of Ukraine.

I am pleased to see the great many events that have been organised both in this Parliament and across the country to mark the one-year anniversary. The “Postcards from Ukraine” photography exhibit, which is displayed here in the Scottish Parliament, highlights the devastating nature of the tax on both the Ukrainian people and the country’s cultural heritage.

In Scotland, we have shown our support by welcoming displaced Ukrainians into our homes and communities—they are now our friends, colleagues and neighbours. I am pleased that people have come together across Scotland to find different ways to show their support for Ukraine this week. We have seen a number of events take place across the country to mark the anniversary.

Over the past year, we have been able to show our support by providing financial and practical help from Government and through the incredible generosity in our communities, be it through charitable donations or direct contributions to communities in Ukraine and neighbouring countries.

As we look towards a Ukrainian victory, it is worth considering the opportunities of twinning between Scotland’s and Ukraine’s villages, towns and cities as we help to rebuild Ukraine in the years to come.

When the time to show our support and solidarity came, we offered it whole-heartedly. The warm Scottish welcome that we have provided has been a collective effort that we can all be proud of. I am proud that Scotland has welcomed more than 23,000 arrivals from Ukraine in the past year and that more than 19,000 have come through our supersponsor scheme.

As this ugly, full-scale war enters its second year, we cannot waiver in our commitment and instead must enhance our efforts and continue to do all that we can to support Ukraine and those people who have been displaced. The additional £1 million that we have announced today has been welcomed by all quarters in the chamber and will go directly to aid organisations that support people on the ground in Ukraine.

As part of our on-going solidarity with Ukraine in the coming weeks and months, our work to support displaced people from Ukraine settle well in Scotland will continue in earnest. Indeed, in a bid to ensure the longer-term sustainability of the supersponsor scheme, the Government initiated a full review of that scheme, the results of which were published in November last year. The interventions that the review generated ranged from clear information and support to investment in social housing, testing alternatives to short-term accommodation, such as modular housing, and actions to reduce barriers to employment and the private rental sector.

We continue to work closely with local authority matching teams to support people into longer-term accommodation. The scale of demand makes that a challenging process, and it is taking a huge collective effort to deliver it.

In the spirit of the previous speech, perhaps I should declare an interest as a fellow member of the Scottish Parliament proudly sanctioned by the Putin regime.

I note the support of Jenni Minto’s constituents in Argyll and Bute and, indeed, the support of people across Scotland in seeking justice and accountability for Russia’s war against Ukraine, and I commend the contributions by Jenni Minto, Collette Stevenson, Alexander Burnett, Sarah Boyack and Stephen Kerr.

Let me be clear at the outset: Scotland utterly condemns Russia’s barbaric and illegal war against Ukraine and its people. From the very outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Scottish Government, all parties in the Scottish Parliament, our local authorities, our community organisations and Scottish families have supported Ukraine and Ukrainians. We successfully lobbied the UK Government to agree to a supersponsor scheme and provided £7 million-worth of support in cash and in kind for basic humanitarian assistance in respect of health, water, sanitation and shelter for people fleeing Ukraine.

We are appalled by the reports of atrocities in Ukraine. Intentionally directing missile attacks against civilians and civilian objects constitutes a war crime. Two weeks ago, President Zelenskyy stood on the steps of Westminster Hall and spoke of “a coalition of values” where justice must prevail. I agree with him, as I am sure all colleagues who have spoken in the debate do.

Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine reminds us how fragile the post-1945 rules-based international order remains and how real the threat to global peace and human rights is. For my generation, the prospect of war on such a scale returning to Europe seemed unthinkable until Russia’s full-scale invasion 12 months ago.

The Scottish Government agrees that those responsible for atrocities committed in Ukraine, including military commanders and other individuals in the Putin regime, must be held accountable. We support the action of the United Kingdom and 42 other countries in referring atrocities committed in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court. The ICC investigation is under way, and we call on all nations to assist it.

The Scottish Government also supports Ukraine’s application to institute proceedings against the Russian Federation before the International Court of Justice under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. I agree with the President of the European Commission, who emphasised in Kyiv recently the importance of justice, and I welcome her intent to co-ordinate the collection of evidence via an international centre for the prosecution of the crime of aggression in Ukraine in The Hague.

There should be no let-up in Europe or anywhere else in measures that are aimed at forcing the Russian regime to withdraw its forces from Ukraine.

Scotland has always understood and valued the rule of law at home within its distinct and respected legal system. Our judiciary and lawyers have also played their part on the international stage, and they continue to do so. Many Scottish judges and lawyers in the solicitor and advocate branches of the profession have worked in, and have experience of, the ICC or ad hoc courts and tribunals—for example, Lord Bonomy sat as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Despite having been expelled from the Council of Europe in March, Russia remains accountable in the European Court of Human Rights for human rights violations committed during much of the past year.

Ukraine has proposed the creation of a new special tribunal on the crime of aggression to ensure that Russia’s civilian and military leaderships are held to account for the decision to illegally invade Ukraine.

I note that a core group of nations has been established to pursue criminal accountability for Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the Scottish Government supports the aim of the group: to create a mechanism that ensures that Russia’s leaders are fully held to account for their actions—a point that was highlighted by Sarah Boyack a few moments ago. There can be no route back to normality or rehabilitation for the Russian Federation unless it complies in full with the judgments issued against it by the relevant international courts.

It is now almost a year since Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine; it is some nine years since its first wave of aggression, when it seized Crimea and installed puppet regimes in the Donbas. The international community’s response then proved insufficient in deterring Putin from further violent expansionism. The Ukrainian people’s courage has been extraordinary, and Ukraine’s armed forces have shown that, if they are given the tools, they can defeat Russia—and defeat Russia they must.

History shows that allowing aggressors to commit crimes against their own people and against their neighbours leads to greater suffering. The Russian regime is all too ready to display brutal disregard for human life and human dignity, both at home and abroad. The international community must keep supporting Ukraine to help it win the war, and Scotland will continue to play its part. We will ensure that our companies and institutions uphold sanctions against Russia, we will continue to provide a home for displaced Ukrainians for as long as they need it, and we will always raise our voices to support Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence.

We will continue to provide as much as we can to support the Ukrainian people and the war effort. That is essential, both for Ukraine itself and for longer-term peace and stability in Europe.

As President Zelenskyy said in his address to the European Parliament in Brussels,

“This is our Europe, these are our rules, this is our way of life, and for Ukraine, it’s a way home, a way to its home.”

Slava Ukraini! Heroyam slava!

First, I note that that is an extremely sensible reflection on the circumstances in which we find ourselves. For the record, it is important that we understand the context of why meeting net zero and climate targets is so challenging in this area. We are talking about how we can, in large part, retrofit buildings and facilities that were built at a time when one did not even conceive of the climate and environmental challenges that we now face. How does one retrofit a castle, or an older building or facility, in a way—to go back to Mr Golden’s point—that can involve a workforce with the skills to be able to do that appropriately?

For example, Historic Environment Scotland still has stonemasons, to protect and restore historic buildings. One needs traditional, older skills, which are, perhaps, less a part of the mainstream economy. During the Dumfries roundtable, I heard about that in relation to leatherworking—again, a mainstream skill 100 or 150 years ago—which is now very much in demand both in the equine sphere and in fashion. It is a multibillion-pound industry.

I heard the point that was made in evidence to the committee, and I hear very much what Maurice Golden said about matching the skills to the requirement in that part of the sector. Given that that has just been raised with your committee, and that you are raising it with me now, Mr Golden, I definitely want to make sure that we do everything that we can to help those in Government who have responsibility for skills and training.

It is exactly the same as the opportunity/challenge that we have had in relation to screen. Suddenly, a part of the economy is booming and we require people who have the skills to support the industry. People need to be able to find the appropriate training courses, the opportunities to learn and the route map into that industry. There is a direct parallel.

I want to look into that more and I will be happy to report back to Mr Golden and colleagues. The point was extremely well made.

First, the process itself has been exceptionally valuable, with significant levels of participation across the sector. It is a continuation of an approach that was taken during the Covid pandemic whereby having regular discussions with representatives from across the culture and arts sector meant that we were able to understand the themes, needs, interests, concerns and expectations of people in the sector. Obviously, during the pandemic, much of that was linked with the extreme circumstances of the lockdown and the income difficulties that individuals and organisations faced in the culture sector.

Now, we have obviously moved on, and organisations are able to perform and tour and people are trying to bounce back from the pandemic. A broad range of themes is emerging that still needs to be brought together in report form. We will, no doubt, be able to share that with you and other committee members. As you might expect given the range of participation, from individual freelance performers or people involved in other aspects of culture and the arts all the way to larger organisations, a very broad range of issues is being flagged up, which are reflective of the underlying factors. Incidentally, I should say that I also held a meeting with the national performing companies last week.

This is about how organisations can continue to operate in circumstances in which there is a squeeze on their income because they have perhaps not yet fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels in relation to the number of ticket sales or visitors. There are also the additional costs of heating overheads and inflation.

As we know, at a national level, inflation is officially at just over 10 per cent. However, we are hearing from participants that inflation in many areas that impact directly on culture and the arts can be a factor of that—I have heard figures of inflation of up to 30 per cent impacting on organisations. As one might imagine, those participants that have property—theatres and the like—have significant overheads that are squeezing their finances.

On top of that, some participants are reporting that other income streams that have traditionally played a significant role in their finances are also being impacted. The amount of financial support through philanthropy, for example, is proving challenging for some organisations.

Public funding is also of huge importance to the culture and arts scene in Scotland, as it is in most countries in the developed world. As we have discussed at committee before, one often hears the request for individuals and organisations to have the greatest possible certainty. We hear a lot of support for the intentions of the Scottish Government to support multi-annual funding horizons for individuals and organisations, which is the direction of travel that we are on.

A very strong theme that is coming back from all the meetings is that the culture and arts sector wants to work collaboratively through these difficulties. There is an appreciation that things will not improve in the short term, given the economic circumstances, and there is a willingness among those in the sector to consider what they can do. No doubt suggestions will also be made about what we, in the broadest sense—that includes the Scottish Government, agencies such as Creative Scotland, Screen Scotland and Historic Environment Scotland, and all the different stakeholders—can do to make sure that we get through this most extreme of circumstances, having protected and supported our culture and arts community.

One factor, which I have been hearing more of and on which we all need to reflect, is people saying that it was personally hugely challenging for them to get through the pandemic. Funding was available for that period, but, with the UK Government now ending that support, one hears people say that their level of personal challenge remains acute because of the uncertainty about the medium and longer term.

We need to reflect on the pressures under which people are operating and the responsibilities that they have to themselves or to small or larger organisations. Everybody is cognisant of examples—I have seen some recently—of beloved organisations and venues finding themselves in existential financial difficulty, which is obviously making others concerned about what the future holds for them.

As soon as we work up a read out from those round-tables meetings, I will ensure that the committee is able to see it; together with the evidence that you have taken here, that will help your deliberations and ours.

Yes. That is constantly being worked on by culture officials, including in discussions with other parts of the Scottish Government.

There has been significant budgetary instability, if I can call it that, given the events of the past year. In particular, there has been tremendous budgetary instability in the UK Government. Given the constraints on us, and given that instability, one must make sure that, if and when one moves to multi-annual funding rounds, people can depend on the projections of their funding situation.

Given that instability and those constraints, it is understandable that more work needs to be done in that area, because, for the people who have been mentioned already and for many others, it is going to be a very important development—for the better, I hope. As I am sure that you have heard in evidence, many people who run extremely effective and efficient organisations have to spend what they view as a disproportionate amount of their time every year making funding applications and considering how to maintain their organisations. We understand that.

However, it would not be responsible to change from the current funding model to a new one until we can say with absolute confidence how that will work and what it will provide, and give people the certainty that they want. I want Mr Cameron to understand that we are committed to doing that. As soon as we are able, I will be happy to update the committee on how we will do it.

I am extremely keen to give the sector the assurances that, understandably, it has asked for, so that it can focus more on what it is supposed to do—delivering for our national cultural life—and perhaps spend less time on the annual cycle of financial applications and reviews.

I can speak more about the world cycling championships than I can about the athletics ones, but I will ensure that we update Mr Ruskell—who, if memory serves me correctly, asked a question about them at a previous committee meeting. He is absolutely right to draw attention to the fact that the Scottish Government is making significant financial contributions to the world cycling championships.

For those who are not aware of that event, I note that it will take place in Scotland. This is the first time that there has been an event of its kind. It will bring together the disciplines that exist in cycling as a sport, which will take place at the same time in different venues in different parts of Scotland. The event is going to be larger than the Commonwealth games, which is amazing. It will happen this year, and a lot of thought and effort are going into ensuring that there will be genuine community benefit and societal impact in encouraging people to get on their bikes. I confess to the committee that I may need to follow that injunction a little bit more myself.

I chair the board that brings everything together, so I am closely involved in the event and I appreciate how big it is. Anything that can be done to magnify and support the understanding of it as an event that is taking place in Scotland would be much appreciated.

With regard to the specifics of the athletics event, I am joined by Rachael McKechnie, who works for the Scottish Government on the events side of things, and she may want to add to my comments. I am happy to write to Mr Ruskell. I appreciate that has made a point about why, if it is a GB event, the Scottish Government might be carrying substantial costs. I will update him on the situation in that regard.

We are involved in sporting events with the UK Government in other contexts. For example, the Euro 2028 bid, together with other home nations, is an area in which we are working with the Governments in London, Cardiff, Belfast and Dublin, and I think that we are making progress there.