Chamber and committees

Yes, I am very concerned that the policy will harm key sectors across Scotland. It is my view and that of the Scottish Government that EU citizens who live in the UK should not need to apply to retain the rights that they have had to live, work and study in Scotland. The EU settlement scheme should be replaced with a declarative scheme that automatically allows EU citizens to retain their rights. At the very least, the UK Government should extend the deadline for applying to the EU settlement scheme.

It is unacceptable that, with eight days to go to the EU settlement scheme deadline, there is now a backlog of more than 300,000 unresolved cases. The Scottish Government has consistently been clear that the deadline should be extended. On 16 June, the Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development wrote to Lord Frost requesting a discussion on the issue at EU exit committee meetings. We have yet to receive a response. I also requested an extension when I met the United Kingdom Minister for Immigration Compliance and Justice. We will continue to do everything that we can to support EU citizens, including seeking an extension.

I completely agree that the upcoming deadline poses significant unfair risks to EU nationals. We have continually requested at the very least an extension to the EUSS deadline. Let me be clear that any refusal to extend that deadline is a choice by the UK Government.

The Scottish Government is supporting EU citizens through our stay in Scotland campaign, through which we have spent more than £1 million on helping people to apply to the EUSS scheme, including through media campaigns across radio, digital and social media platforms, and toolkits that provide information and signposting to be made available to EU citizens. The funding has also been used to offer advice and support through Citizens Advice Scotland, the Citizens Rights Project and JustRight Scotland guidance on the rights of EU citizens.

I reiterate a pretty important point that needs to be stressed: Scotland voted against Brexit. We should never lose sight of that. Nevertheless, the Scottish Government continues to engage constructively on readiness issues, as we have done up to now, and we will continue to press the UK Government to ensure that the Scottish Government has the information that we need to respond to the impacts of Brexit.

Several structures are in place for engagement between the Scottish and UK Governments, involving both the Cabinet Office and UK Government departments—at official and ministerial levels—for the purposes of sharing information and considering mitigations for the impacts of Brexit.

Since 1 January 2021, the Scottish Government has attended 26 meetings of the EU Exit Operations Committee. The meetings are chaired by Lord Frost and were previously chaired by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. That committee continues as the main UK ministerial meeting on broader transition impacts. Invitations to attend XO meetings are issued by the UK Government when it considers that devolved issues are impacted, and the Scottish Government has accepted all invitations as routes to engage on our interests.

I welcome you to your place, Presiding Officer, and I congratulate Sharon Dowey on her election to the Scottish Parliament.

Jackie Kay’s tenure as the national poet for Scotland, or makar, ended in March 2021, and I would like to thank her for all her inspirational work over the past five years. I am sure that I speak on behalf of all members in all parties across the chamber in wishing her well. The process to appoint the next makar is under way and an announcement will be made once that process has reached its conclusion.

I thank the member for her question. It is great to hear that there is support for the Scots language—and also, I imagine, for Gaelic, as one of our indigenous languages—among Conservative members.

The Scottish Government is determined to keep working with the Scots-speaking community and the Gaelic-speaking community to do all that we can to ensure that the languages flourish and remain a vital part of Scotland’s cultural identity. As part of the process to appoint a new makar, a panel of poetry experts with a range of experience, including of Scots and Gaelic poetry, has developed a shortlist, and the final decision will be made in due course.

I acknowledge the member’s interest in the subject. I know that he was a member of the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee in the previous parliamentary session.

The Scottish Government recognises that the culture sector has been among the sectors that have been hardest hit by the pandemic and that it will continue to face challenges even as restrictions ease. Since the pandemic started, we have worked closely with all parts of the sector to understand its impact, including what support is needed. We have provided more than £149 million to the culture and heritage sectors, most recently through an additional £25 million for cultural organisations and venues that remain affected by restrictions. The member will wish to know that we remain committed to working with the sector to support its recovery and that we will continue to engage with it to understand and assess the impact of the pandemic and help to plot a way out of the crisis.

I commend the member for asking that question. The Scottish Government should be involved in the full range of trade and co-operation agreement governance structures, including the Partnership Council and its advisory bodies, the specialised committees and the trade specialised committees. Our involvement should also extend across the joint committee and its associated specialised committees under the withdrawal agreement. Those are the two international treaties that oversee EU and UK relations, and both have significant implications for Scotland.

However, the scope of our role goes beyond the responsibilities for devolved areas of policy, and we have written to Lord Frost to set out that our interests also encompass all implementation responsibilities for reserved issues and a legitimate wider interest in reserved issues that have implications for Scotland.

My colleague Ms Gilruth attended the EU-UK Partnership Council meeting on 9 June on my behalf, although formal speaking roles were limited to the UK Government and the EU. The Scottish Government also requested of the UK Government that it be allowed to attend and speak at the Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee meeting, which was held on the same day, but that request was declined. Those arrangements are far from satisfactory and we are pressing for significant improvements.

I acknowledge the interests of the member for Edinburgh Southern. As fellow members of the Scottish Parliament representing the capital, we both understand how important Edinburgh’s festivals are.

The Scottish Government is working closely with EventScotland, the City of Edinburgh Council and clinicians to deliver plans to allow certain exemptions to the existing guidance for a small number of outdoor cultural events at the Edinburgh international festival and the Edinburgh fringe. We are looking closely at Covid-19 mitigations at those events and the status of the pandemic. That is being managed through the flagship events process, which aims to support a small number of internationally significant events to take place this year.

In partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council, we have jointly made available £1.3 million to cover costs that will allow those festival events to happen safely. EventScotland is now preparing for contracting discussions with the relevant producers.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is my first outing, so I appeal for your forgiveness.

With his background, Jim Fairlie knows more than most in this chamber about the subject that we are discussing. The UK Government’s new immigration policies fail to address Scotland’s distinct demographic and economic needs, and they completely disregard key sectors, including those that were mentioned in the supplementary question. Scottish Government ministers have written to the UK Government multiple times to request engagement, but we have still not been offered a meeting to discuss the impact of the points-based immigration system. A one-size-fits-all approach to immigration is no longer appropriate—Scotland needs to explore a distinctive approach.