Chamber and committees

Speaking as the cabinet secretary for culture and the MSP for Edinburgh Central and many cultural venues in the capital, I say to the member for Edinburgh Western that I am absolutely seized of that issue. There is a challenge, the scale of which we understand. The fact that the Scottish Government reached very speedy agreement to find £65 million prior to Christmas to address the scale of the challenge evidences the seriousness with which we treat it.

I say to everybody in the chamber that, as we begin—I hope—with confidence the early stages of emerging from the omicron variant, we all have a role. We can support our cultural venues and attend shows, concerts, exhibitions and the like.

We need a two-pronged approach. We need to support our venues, which have suffered over recent weeks and months, but we also need to ensure that, as we are able to return and support the cultural sector, we do so whole-heartedly. I appeal to Alex Cole-Hamilton and everybody else in the chamber to join us in doing so.

That is a very important question. Throughout these circumstances, we have had the closest working relationship with the cultural sector. I have had many Teams calls with people throughout Scotland’s cultural and artistic community. At the earliest point at which notice can be given of any public health measures, they are shared with the sector, as they are with the wider business community.

I hope—as I am sure Foysol Choudhury does—that there will be no necessity to return to any form of safeguards or restrictions that impact on the cultural community. In the meantime, we will do everything that we can to disburse the necessary funds to ensure that individuals, businesses and venues remain solvent and are able to bounce back.

I make the same appeal to Foysol Choudhury and all colleagues in Edinburgh and throughout the rest of the country that I made to my Liberal Democrat colleague. Please let us do everything that we can to give as much confidence to people who are returning in supporting the cultural sector and our venues. That will give them the greatest chance of success.

Scotland is a proudly internationalist nation and embraces opportunities to strengthen our international relationships. Our new global affairs framework will be grounded in a values-based approach and will set out the basis on which the Scottish Government will prioritise our international activity. Our international offices enhance Scotland’s international reputation and create domestic opportunities. We have plans to strengthen our office in Brussels and open offices in Copenhagen and Warsaw in the coming years. We will also continue to use our growing international development fund and enhanced climate justice fund to work with partners in the global south.

I welcome the opportunity that is given by Sarah Boyack’s question to comment briefly on the situation in which we find ourselves.

We are in a very fast-moving situation because of the omicron variant of Covid-19. The Government is doing everything possible, within the constraints of the devolution settlement and finance, to find the resources that we want to support the culture and arts sector.

As we come out of the pandemic, are there lessons to be learned about how finances can be managed during the type of challenging situation that we are currently living through? There is no doubt that lessons can be learned, but I assure Sarah Boyack that I, Jenny Gilruth and other colleagues in the Scottish Government are doing everything that we can to secure funding to support the culture and arts sector, as we get through the pandemic.

No, I do not agree with the Conservative front-bench spokesman. As is so often the case, together with his colleagues, he ignores the result of the Scottish Parliament election. The people of Scotland elected a Scottish National Party-led Government, and it was elected with a mandate to hold a referendum.

In addition to the work that we are clearly doing on battling the Covid pandemic—our number 1 priority—we have the full panoply of Government work that we need to pursue. Part of that is making the preparations for the referendum that will take place when the time is right and the Covid pandemic has passed.

The Scottish Government has always been clear that EU citizens should not have to apply to retain the rights that they enjoyed when the UK was a member state of the EU. The UK Government should have chosen a declaratory statement rather than force people to suffer the indignity of applying to the EU settlement scheme.

We have consistently said that all successful applicants to the EUSS should be granted permanent settled status rather than the less secure pre-settled status. We fully appreciate and support the position that the Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements has taken and call on the UK Government to remove the requirement for pre-settled status holders to make a second, stressful application to the EUSS.

I am pleased to be given the opportunity to do that.

The Scottish Government is investing £14.2 million in the current financial year in a range of capital projects, including the Scottish national gallery refurbishment and the Museum of Flight. As I announced on 9 December, we are committing a further £2 million to support cultural recovery in the museums and galleries sector, including £1 million for the Scottish Crannog Centre and a further £1 million for the sector to adapt to the challenges of the pandemic. The 2022-23 budget that was published on 9 December allocates £30 million to my portfolio for capital expenditure to support a range of infrastructure projects.

As somebody who lived in Aberdeen for four years while studying in that great city, I understand the dangers that Tess White is describing. I also recognise the point that she makes about the challenge to our built infrastructure, both within the stock that comes under Historic Environment Scotland and more generally.

Given that Tess White has asked a specific question without advance notice, I will be happy to write back to her so that she has the fullest information that I can provide. I appreciate that she and her colleagues will want to be sure that as much as possible is being done to protect our historic environment across Scotland.

On 7 September 2021, the First Minister announced, as part of the programme for government, that the Scottish Government will work to ensure that a legitimate and constitutional referendum can be held within the current parliamentary session and, if the Covid crisis is over, within the first half of the session.

Since the announcement in the PFG, work has begun to scope what will be required to take that commitment forward and to provide the people of Scotland with the information that they will need in order that they can make an informed choice about Scotland’s future.

I would be more than happy to make a statement to Parliament on the matter. The case for independence is a strong one, and this Government will present it openly, frankly and with confidence and ambition. An independent Scotland would have the power to make different choices, including about how we manage public health challenges with different budgetary options, and it could make the choices that are best suited to Scotland’s interests.

The Scottish Government has a clear mandate to hold a referendum, and it is the people of Scotland who will have the right to determine the future of Scotland.