Chamber and committees

Brexit has led to significant challenges, including labour and skills shortages, which could have an impact on supplies of food and other goods. It was an astonishing act of recklessness by the UK Government to press ahead with a hard Brexit in the middle of a pandemic, and it did so despite the Scottish Government’s having provided detailed evidence of the damage that it would cause. We are doing whatever we can to mitigate the harms that are being inflicted on Scottish businesses.

Since 1 January, the Scottish Government has, at official and ministerial levels, attended 29 European Union exit operations committee meetings to discuss the impact of Brexit with the UK Government.

We know how valuable culture is and we are committed to continuing to provide access to culture for communities and creative workers across Scotland as we rebuild from the pandemic. We continue to invest in programmes that have a broad reach across Scotland, including through the youth music initiative and the culture collective fund.

Cultural venues across Scotland, including a number of recipients based in North Ayrshire, have, over the course of the pandemic, received funding through the culture organisations and venues recovery fund, which has been an important step in supporting cultural organisations and venues to navigate these extremely challenging times.

Since 1 January 2021, UK-issued prescriptions are no longer valid in the European Union, except in Ireland and Spain, where separate arrangements apply. Prescription charges can be applied to UK citizens by pharmacists in both those countries. The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the UK Government regarding the impact of EU exit on import of medicines in the event of border disruption.

I stress to my friend Collette Stevenson that there is, of course, a solution to all this, which is that at the soonest practical point we should rejoin the European Union, so that we do not need to go through the continuing woes that Brexit is causing for our economy and for so many communities the length and breadth of this country.

Since the start of the pandemic, the Scottish Government has provided £175 million to the culture, heritage and events sector, which is far more than we have received in consequentials from the United Kingdom Government. That includes £25 million that was announced in June 2021 for the culture organisations and venues recovery fund and the performing arts venues relief fund. We have created guidance for reopening of cultural performances and events, which we will continue to revise to ensure that it remains relevant to the sector.

We will continue to work with the whole culture sector, building on new and existing relationships in order to understand the immediate challenges that it faces as it returns to full capacity. We will work with the sector to consider how to build a resilient future, recognising that different parts of it will be affected in different ways.

Scotland will play its part in welcoming refugees from Afghanistan. We are undertaking urgent work with the Home Office, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and local authorities directly, and other partners to assess the contribution that Scotland can make.

Local authorities assess their ability to provide accommodation and services, and offers are then matched with refugees who are accepted for resettlement by the Home Office on the basis of their needs.

We are keen to explore all avenues through which to provide suitable housing. However, we need detailed information from the United Kingdom Government in order to be able to progress work to identify suitable accommodation and service availability to meet the needs of people who arrive.

I commend Katy Clark for her questions and the positive way in which she put them. I greatly welcome those questions.

I held a conversation on Monday with the new UK minister with responsibility for Afghan refugee resettlement. It was a very positive meeting at which I asked the same questions as Katy Clark has asked about funding, in terms of both direct funding and Barnett consequentials. Unfortunately, however, I have had no detailed breakdown of any commitments from the UK Government following the conversation. I will continue to press the UK Government, because we need answers on that matter.

Katy Clark is absolutely right about the pressures on local authorities, which is why we need to understand the financial side of the equation. However, we must also consider the issue of numbers that she addressed. I will add one simple fact to the debate in order that members understand the scale of the challenge. The average Afghan family size is more than six people. We want to ensure that Afghan families remain united, but it does not take a genius to work out that it is a challenge to find, in our housing stock, houses that are appropriate for people in those circumstances.

We will do absolutely everything that we can do. I appreciate that members want hard and fast numbers, but it is a fast-moving situation and we are trying our best to identify available housing stock, work with local authorities and get the resources in place to maximise the number of people whom we can take in Scotland.

I am not a great gamer in the sense of “Grand Theft Auto”. Forgive me, I was answering the question on the basis of gaming financially, as opposed to the online version.

I mentioned “Grand Theft Auto”, but I think that most people in Scotland are unaware of how groundbreaking game development in Scotland has been. It is not only about “Grand Theft Auto”, but if people do not know just how big and groundbreaking that game is, they should go and have a look. It might not be all our thing, so to speak, but it is a thing for a lot of people around the world. We have a great tradition in that area, particularly in Dundee but elsewhere too.

In parallel, we also have some very interesting developments in the tech sector in Scotland. The tech and games sectors are related, because we have a huge opportunity—as well as a challenge—with regard to helping to give enough people, particularly younger people, the skills, training and expertise to walk into those emerging sectors, and ensuring that the maximum number of people here are able to take up such jobs. That is still an open question. There are some countries for which computer science is absolutely up there as a priority—the good news is that it is for the Scottish Government, too—and we need to ensure that we match those organisations that have a big tech locus.

There is an aspiration for Edinburgh to become the data hub of the whole of Europe, and there is a huge artificial intelligence sector developing in Edinburgh, too. That should be hugely encouraging for a young generation of people for whom computing, gaming, tech and AI are interesting. Although some of those sectors fall into the education or economic development spheres of the Government’s work, they also fall in part into culture. We need to understand that many of them are extremely relevant; as such, they are also on my long list of things that are relevant for me and my colleagues.

Again, that is a subject that we could spend a whole session talking about.

Let us deal with the tangible. For those who are unaware, I represented a rural constituency for 16 years, so the issues that you raise are not foreign to me. The successes in that part of the world—I am talking about Moray—are at the forefront of my thoughts. We are not talking only about there being a cultural offering in cities, with nothing in rural areas—far from it. There is a strong tradition of a touring element among our artistic community and our cultural organisations. Those whose memories are long enough will remember “The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil”, which was a cultural production that travelled round all the villages and towns of Scotland.

I cannot do that question justice in the time that we have. I am absolutely seized of that, not only because of Covid. We have a great opportunity to showcase our cultural offering, especially with the 75th anniversary of the Edinburgh international festival next year. It was founded by an exiled Austrian Jew, Rudolf Bing. I was discussing that with the Austrian ambassador yesterday to try to ensure that we can maintain the festival’s connection to the country of his birth.

How do we help, support and work with our cultural organisations and our venues to ensure that they are in the best possible position to take part in the recovery? Ms Boyack will be aware that there have been announcements about certain venues. For example, during recess, a significant funding announcement was made by the Scottish Government about the King’s theatre in Edinburgh. We are committed to supporting the cultural sector and venues as they bounce back.

We frequently have discussions with people in the cultural sector. We are very well informed about the needs, interests, concerns and expectations of people in the sector. We want to be able to match their ambitions as part of the recovery of the arts and culture sector. If it is not obvious to members, a look at the statistics will confirm that the impact that the lockdown had on the arts and culture sector was among the worst in the Scottish economy. It behoves us to do everything that we can. There are constraints, but we should do as much as we can to work with our colleagues in the sector. We are doing that.

The sad reality is that we are dealing with a global pandemic. We are doing our level best to ensure that we do not have to go back into restrictions. I am happy to tell the committee that I took part in a meeting yesterday with the Deputy First Minister and representatives from different sectors. Some of the first people who spoke in that meeting were leading members of the cultural community and people who manage venues. They very much buy into the approach that we are trying to take, which is to do all that we can to ensure that we do not have to go backwards into restrictions. By working in partnership, we can increase the chances of being able to recover from Covid and of seeing the cultural sector not only recovering but thriving.

I will leave you with a final thought. I am personally interested in Scotland’s cultural offering internationally. Most countries pursue that through a cultural diplomacy framework. I will be developing my thoughts about that during this session of Parliament and will be happy to return to the committee to speak about that. We have a tremendous offering, not only domestically but internationally. We want to do all that we can to support that in the years ahead.

I look forward to coming back.