I have already answered the substantive point that the member raises in my first answer to Stephen Kerr. I was not aware of the invitations to the board, and the record will show that to be the case.

It is up to other people if they wish to launch, take part in or call for investigations. I know that it is the job of Opposition parties to do that. [Interruption.]

There are three parts to the answer to Mr Kerr’s question, which is an entirely reasonable question.

First, as I have said to the committee and I have said publicly repeatedly, I have the utmost confidence in the ability of Sir Mark Jones to exercise his responsibility and leadership as chairman of the board of Historic Environment Scotland. We are all very indebted to him because he is acutely aware of the situation that he has come into. I met him personally to impress on him how keen I was for somebody with his track record to take on the task, to be absolutely candid about what I consider the scale of the challenge to be, and to give him the full confidence that he will have any resource at his disposal to be able to do what needs to be done to get Historic Environment Scotland back working in the way that we expect any non-departmental body to do.

I have had a subsequent and follow-up conversation with Sir Mark about the progress that is taking place and the next steps. Part of what is happening to bolster capacity is the recruitment of a chief operating officer. That is happening closely with help and support from the Scottish Government. It is also happening with the appointment of new members of the board with particular skill sets, and I am keen to confirm to the committee who they are as soon as possible, because I think that all committee members will agree that they are very good appointments. That will be a support for Sir Mark on the board as the change programme goes through.

If there is anything else that Sir Mark says that he requires, I have said to him—and I say this to the committee—that I will be very sympathetic to supporting him completely in any ask that he has. Mr Kerr is right: he has an expectation of how many days a week his chairmanship will take up, but we will be as supportive as required.

The second part is to understand that Sir Mark is chairman of the board and he has inherited a range of investigations, internal and involving others, into matters that are well known to the committee—you have been sent the reports, as have I, and I am as concerned as members of the committee are with all of them. Sir Mark is taking forward the on-going issues; he is doing that. It is not appropriate for me to appoint somebody to a post, to say I have full confidence in him taking that forward, and then to take over responsibility and oversight for such processes. He must be able to start his work as chairman of the board of Historic Environment Scotland and to go through these very challenging issues. If at any stage there is a suggestion that there are things that need to happen for which the Scottish Government has responsibility, we will take that on board.

The third part of the answer to Mr Kerr’s question is about the suggestion that there should be an investigation now into what has been going on in Historic Environment Scotland. As I have already signalled, I think that it is the place of Sir Mark Jones, the board and new board members to take those matters forward now. Should at any stage there be a requirement for further investigations, for further, wider or deeper understanding of the nature of the historic problems, or for anything else in the matter, I am not ruling anything out.

Absolutely. It was apparent to me that there were serious issues in relation to leadership generally in Historic Environment Scotland and that those issues needed to be better understood. You will understand that, by that stage, we had a new chief executive in place and we were approaching the issue of the chairmanship of the board—that was in the first quarter of this year.

I do not have in front of me the exact timeline of when complaints were being made and stories were appearing in the media and so on, but there was a growing general understanding that there were leadership issues in Historic Environment Scotland. As we were becoming aware of that, I was extremely keen for us to be best informed about how the board intended to deal with those issues.

Indeed.

Yes. Ultimately, disbursal to non-departmental bodies happens through the Scottish Government’s budget process, and, as a cabinet secretary, I am involved in making the case for bodies and spending in my area of responsibility, as part of the normal budget process. That is how it works, yes.

I am happy to take away Mr Harvie’s suggestion and satisfy myself that the appropriate guidance is in place. If it is not, I will do what is necessary to make absolutely clear the Government’s position, both for ourselves and for our non-departmental public bodies.

The first point to put on record is that I abhor racism, as does the Scottish Government—I would expect that to be the case across the Government and non-departmental public bodies. I would also expect the Government and/or non-departmental public bodies to take any such issues, or allegations of such behaviour, extremely seriously.

That formed part of the conversations that I had with Sir Mark in relation to his incoming responsibilities with Historic Environment Scotland. I wrote to him directly, raising a number of very serious and concerning matters involving governance and leadership in general in the organisation, including the allegations of racism against a Historic Environment Scotland director.

I have asked the incoming chair of Historic Environment Scotland to prioritise the reviewing of procedures and to report his findings to me. I know that Mr Harvie was very careful in asking his question and in understanding that we should not go into specific individual cases. However, I want to be assured that any issues that involve inappropriate behaviour of any kind—there is, as we know, a wide range—are fully investigated. I also want to be assured that the incoming chair and the board—old and new members—are able to look at all these issues as and when the reviews and investigations have concluded.

No, I do not accept the charge. I have been involved personally. I have met the chairman and the chief executive personally and I have ensured that the appropriate officials are attending the appropriate meetings and reporting back to me about developments. As I have said, if there is a wish for me to attend a board meeting, I have no objection to doing so, but I am content that we have been attending all meetings that needed to be attended. I am not sure whether Mr Kerr wants to point to a meeting that was not attended. All relevant meetings have been attended.

I have been advised by my senior officials about what has been proceeding in these meetings, and that has helped us to be able to make the right decisions, given the role of the Government relative to the senior management of Historic Environment Scotland, which is to make sure that they are being best supported in getting from a very difficult position to a better one.

I would have to check the record, Mr Kerr.