I am very keen to answer as fully as I can, Mr Halcro Johnston, but you will appreciate that we might well stray into the territory of HR matters, which I am not—

There is a lot in Mr Harvie’s question. On the self-evident point about terms such as “appropriate” or “proportionately” and/or “zero tolerance”, any fair-minded person would acknowledge that these are slightly different matters to on which to place judgment. I therefore appreciate that he and I need to await the internal processes in relation to any cases in Historic Environment Scotland. I will rest on that in relation to Historic Environment Scotland for today.

However, I want Mr Harvie to have confidence that this is a matter of real importance and real concern to me, not least because people in senior leadership positions have a particular responsibility for how they act. How they act sends signals, both internally in the culture of an organisation and more generally, at a time when, as Mr Harvie correctly identifies, there is growing concern about the normalisation of certain behaviours and language in ways that I hope most of us would believe had been consigned to the dustbin of history. It is not acceptable.

On guidance within Government and to non-departmental bodies, I will have to forward that on to Mr Harvie. I apologise; I do not have that with me. It will exist, and I will make sure that he and the committee have it. I would be very happy to hear the views of Mr Harvie and the committee if there are any reflections that that guidance is not robust enough. I have not been under the impression that the Government’s view on racism and xenophobia is anything other than that they are totally and utterly unacceptable.

We have been very quick to make sure not only that Sir Mark has support from senior Scottish Government officials but that we are helping to build resilience in support of him with the appointment of a chief operating officer, which will be a significant resource. There will also be new board members who have skills that are currently not reflected on the board, which will help Sir Mark.

If anything needs to be put in place—in addition to the reviews, the investigations and the planning that takes place under new management and the new chairmanship of the board—I have said personally to Sir Mark, both before and since his appointment, that I want him to be as supported as he requires and that he need only speak with the relevant officials or with me and we will look very sympathetically at providing that support.

Thank you, convener, and good morning to colleagues on the committee.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak about Historic Environment Scotland today. As the committee is aware, my responsibilities for Historic Environment Scotland are strategic rather than operational. That said, I share the committee’s concerns around the leadership of HES, and my officials have been working daily with the board to address those matters.

The first point that I want to place on record is that Historic Environment Scotland undertakes a vital role of investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland’s historic environment. The appointment of Sir Mark Jones as chair and the excellent work that is being carried out by HES staff give me confidence that HES will emerge from these challenges a stronger and more effective organisation that will continue to deliver for Scotland for many years to come.

After his appointment, I wrote to Sir Mark Jones on 10 October outlining my priorities to be addressed. Those included taking action to remedy any shortcomings identified in the forthcoming section 22 report from the Auditor General; resolving the situation with the chief executive; and improving the HES organisational culture. The Scottish Government will fully support the chair and the HES board in tackling those governance and leadership challenges.

Although I cannot go into individual staffing matters, I am assured that the board of HES, under the leadership of Sir Mark, is overseeing the robust investigation of all grievances and disciplinary matters. For example, an independent human resources firm has been appointed to investigate the grievances and performance issues. It is right that HES investigates those matters, and I look forward to being apprised of the outcomes.

I can also confirm that HES, with the support of the Scottish Government, has appointed a recruitment company, after a procurement process, to recruit a chief operating officer. Interviews are expected to take place in the next two weeks, with the appointment being made before the end of this year.

Finally, I am delighted to be able to tell the committee that I have received approval from the Ethical Standards Commissioner to appoint two new interim board members for 12 months. I aim to announce both appointments this week, but cannot name the individuals this morning.

I will be happy to discuss any of those matters in more detail with you.

I cannot recall exactly. I met him a number of times following my coming into office. I think that the last time that we met was at the opening of lock 16, which is the—

I would have to check the record, Mr Kerr.

I remember meeting him. We met in Falkirk, at the—

What sticks in my memory are the meetings that I had with the chief executive when she came into office. Frankly, those meetings were most instructive and important in understanding that, with new leadership in the chief executive’s office, there was an aspiration to continue with the significant financial and commercial improvements in Historic Environment Scotland.

I would not want Mr Kerr to not appreciate and understand that I have met the senior management of Historic Environment Scotland—I have done so. I could go on: there is a long list of meetings between my directors general and other senior officials in the Scottish Government and the senior management of Historic Environment Scotland.

Excuse me, convener, but I was in the middle of a sentence.

I was just stressing how important it is for the committee to understand the day-to-day interaction between the sponsorship team and Historic Environment Scotland or, indeed, any sponsorship team and whatever non-departmental public body it is engaged with. That is the key interface when one is dealing with a day-to-day problem, and I think that it is really important for committee members to understand that such engagement is an almost daily occurrence. I would not want the impression to be created that the Scottish Government and its officials are not engaging with Historic Environment Scotland, that I am not being updated on progress and that I am not making decisions that are helping Historic Environment Scotland get into a better place. The facts and the timeline make absolutely clear that that is what is happening.