The new Ireland-Scotland bilateral framework 2025 to 2030 reasserts our commitment to BIPA. Specifically, it commits the Scottish Government and the Irish Government to strengthening parliamentary links and recognising the role that the British-Irish Parliamentary Association plays in that regard, with regular contact between the Oireachtas and the Scottish Parliament. Although the framework itself will not be published until 26 November, we can give a supportive reply.

So, the answer is yes, I would be happy to undertake to contact the BIPA secretariat to reaffirm the Scottish Government’s commitment to BIPA and to offer appropriate support.

The Scottish Government’s targeted support for public libraries is made through our annual funding—which totals £935,000—to the Scottish Library and Information Council. It includes the public library improvement fund, which supports creative and innovative public library projects throughout Scotland. The successful PLIF projects for 2025-26 are due to be announced soon.

Through the school library improvement fund, we also provide targeted support—amounting to £150,000—to school libraries, in recognition of their important role in education. More generally, public library policy is devolved to local authorities, which means that our general revenue funding to councils also supports libraries across the country.

We have nine offices in our international network, most of which are hosted in the British embassy or high commission, alongside United Kingdom, Welsh and Northern Irish teams. We include Scotland House London in that network because it serves to engage the diplomatic community at the Court of St James’s, as well as the global financial markets in the city. In my time as cabinet secretary for external affairs, I have had useful dialogue with the Constitution, Europe and External Affairs and Culture Committee on exactly the question of assessing reach and impact, and I was glad to accept its recommendation that we publish an annual report explaining how the work of those offices contributes to the goals of our international strategy. We will publish the next such annual report in the coming weeks.

I begin my answer by paying tribute to the Scottish and international members of the humanitarian mission of the sumud flotilla. Scottish Government officials have been in daily contact with the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, including over the weekend, seeking urgent clarification on repatriation arrangements for the residents of Scotland detained by Israel. The FCDO told us that it had lobbied the Israeli authorities to make clear that it expected the situation to be resolved safely, in line with international law and with due respect for the rights of those on board. All four residents of Scotland have now been deported from Israel, and at least one is back in Scotland, with three deported to Jordan. The FCDO told us earlier today that consular officials are supporting all British citizens who have been deported to Jordan.

First, I am sorry that the member could not find it in his heart to thank the UN agencies for providing humanitarian support in the genocide that is currently taking place in Gaza. Rather than casting shade—

I am sorry, Presiding Officer, but I wanted to make a point of order for the previous vote. I would have voted no in the previous vote, but I have taken part in this division.

I am keen to build on a number of aspects of cross-portfolio working. As I have said in previous evidence to the committee, there are areas of the cultural space, in relation especially to health and wellbeing but also to the economy space, where there is the potential for us to do more.

I do not know whether the committee has heard from, for example, Scottish Ballet about what it has done, is doing and wants to do in the health and wellbeing space. I highly recommend that the committee hear about that work, because it is absolutely world class. Scottish Ballet is a really good example of a cultural institution in Scotland. It is a national performing company, so it is directly funded by the Scottish Government, and it is doing a lot in the health and wellbeing space, which is paid for out of the culture directorate’s finances.

At the same time, there are other areas in the cultural space, such as the screen sector, in which we can look at significant economic aspects. The committee has been well advised about the ambition for it to become a £1 billion GVA industry in Scotland by 2030, on which really good progress is being made. How does that marry with other parts of Government that have responsibilities? We are definitely doing more to ensure that we get the most out of opportunities. I could move on to tourism, for example, and there are other areas that are, to all intents and practical purposes, not part of my direct responsibility in Government. However, by ensuring that everything works together, we can do more.

Screen is another good example of an area in which we are required to do more. Screen Scotland has direct responsibility for television and film but not gaming, which sits in the economy space in the Scottish Government. Meanwhile, we have a national performing company—the Royal Scottish National Orchestra—that has a significant new source of income in the form of soundtracks for films and games. In painting that picture, I am making your point that cross-portfolio working is absolutely key. I have not even got to social prescribing, which is one of the committee’s previous particular interests and one that I have given evidence to the committee about.

I am cognisant of all the different areas in which culture has a lot to offer. Given that you are interested in the budget element today, I note that the key change that we are seeing at present—Creative Scotland’s multi-annual funding of twice as many organisations as before—is foundational for the delivery of cross-departmental benefits, which might have been harder to achieve in the past.

It was definitely the case that, when there was significant financial distress, especially as we emerged from Covid, there was concern in some parts of the country that certain local authorities might make decisions on the provision of some cultural services that raised the potential for funding to be diverted. The Scottish Government would take very seriously the prospect of the likes of Sistema Scotland or the Youth Music Initiative not being able to continue in one part of the country, because they are an important part of our commitment to helping children in more challenged social and economic circumstances to access music and cultural provision. I have been very alive to that possibility. I have been meeting the cultural lead and other representatives of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities throughout my term in office, and meetings have been taking place more widely with the cultural leads of local authorities.

I am optimistic about learning more from the review of Creative Scotland, which has been looking into the availability of cultural services in different parts of the country, as it is not uniform and there is not a uniform approach. There is one issue around local government and another around the local enterprise companies—we have three in Scotland, and they take quite different approaches to culture. That is another layer of understanding: how are things working in different parts of the country?

We must then add the question of the extent to which Creative Scotland’s decision making is about what is funded and what that means in different parts of the country. Are there gaps? I would be keen to understand whether that is the case. I would say in mitigation that both the Culture Collective and Collective Communities funding streams, which are being provided throughout Scotland, offer important mechanisms to ensure that all parts of the country have the ability to draw down funds to support cultural activity.

Your question, convener, about ensuring that there is provision of cultural services is absolutely right, and there is a whole parallel discussion to be had about libraries, which fits into that context, too.

As the committee knows, I walk a fine line between wanting to ensure that we, as the Government, are doing everything that we can to support local government, the enterprise companies and Creative Scotland and respecting our arm’s length relationships—which exist for obvious reasons, as it is not for cabinet secretaries to micromanage what we might personally wish to have more of, whether on stage, on screen or wherever. I leave that to the experts.

Having said all of that, and referring back to the question that you posed, convener, I would say that there is a role for Government in using our convening power and the best possible information to ensure that we have cultural provision across Scotland that can by accessed by people of all backgrounds. In general, that is working well, and I am interested to learn, through the review, whether there any areas where we could be doing more.

I can see a very subtle hand movement from Lisa Baird, who may, I think, want to add something.

I am delighted to represent Edinburgh Central, which is home to all Edinburgh’s major festivals and to Murrayfield, where AC/DC and Oasis played. Mr Brown will be aware that there was some media coverage about capacity being a concern, which I appreciate. I had the good fortune to be at the Oasis concert and see how tremendous and popular it was and how people came from the rest of Scotland. Mr Bibby is nodding, so I assume that he was in the audience and can attest to that. Murrayfield, which is a tremendous venue, both for rugby and for cultural events, coped with the challenge. Public transport worked very well, even though the gig happened at the same time as the Edinburgh festivals, which are the third largest ticketed events in the world.

If, by extension, the question is whether too much is happening in Edinburgh rather than elsewhere, I cannot really answer that, because I am a great supporter of festivals in other parts of Scotland.

First, I thank Mr Adam for helping me to understand the history of punk in Paisley and Renfrewshire more generally. That was not part of the briefing notes that I prepared for myself.