Chamber and committees

My daughter is a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament. Can we increase the frequency with which the Scottish Parliament and the SYP hold joint sessions?

Yes, to ask the SPCB to consider holding joint sessions. That would give—

I had a few meetings with some of the firefighters as well. The chief officer, however, has been put in a situation where, if the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service does not have enough funding, it has to make decisions. Sometimes, it depends on the funding. It is important that we find out about the issue.

The value of Scotland’s culture sector cannot be denied—in Edinburgh alone, upwards of 3 million people flock to the capital every August for the festival—yet our culture sector is in desperate need of help and support. Scotland is world renowned for its culture and arts, but that legacy is in danger if the culture and arts sector continues to face a lack of funding. Following a difficult few years through the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis, continued cuts will cause many key cultural institutions to be lost if we do not step up and solve the problem.

Edinburgh is feeling the brunt of that lack of funding for culture. Last year, we saw the closure of the legendary Filmhouse in Edinburgh, after its parent company went into administration. I was happy to hear the news that the Filmhouse may reopen, due to crowdfunding, and I am hopeful that that great cultural institution will be restored. However, that is still just one example of the bleak future that our cultural institutions may have.

More recently, Creative Scotland turned down Lammermuir Festival’s funding application last month. The festival expected the grant to make up 23 per cent of its budget and now its future hangs in the balance as a result. When I questioned the Scottish Government about providing crucial funding to rural cultural projects such as the festival, the Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development reminded me that the allocation of grant funding is Creative Scotland’s responsibility. However, in previous years, Lammermuir Festival has been partly funded through that grant. Scottish Government cuts to Creative Scotland’s budget means that difficult decisions such as the one on the festival’s grant will continue to be made.

I was honoured to sponsor a celebration of the major Indian festival Dussehra last night in the Parliament. Throughout our work to support Scotland’s cultural sector, we must continue to make sure that we encourage and invite diverse cultures in Scotland to work towards a vibrant, more inclusive Scotland. That is why I was pleased to hear the minister’s comments last night about the future funding options.

It is not enough simply to rescue and support our current cultural institutions. We must ensure that Scotland’s cultural sector is protected well into the future. Only a few months ago, Scottish Opera commented on difficulties due to a lack of young people in the industry. Arts and cultural jobs and career paths must be made available and promoted in schools alongside more traditional career pathways. Children must have access to music tuition, dance and arts throughout their educational journey. That way, we can allow our cultural sector to continue to survive.

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to implement the anti-racist curriculum principles, which were published in June. (S6O-02612)

The teaching slavery in schools programme has been designed to support educators who are committed to developing new and sensitive approaches to an inclusive curriculum. Given the goals that were outlined in the curriculum reform principles, can the cabinet secretary advise whether the Scottish Government has considered creating a specific programme for teachers to address Scotland’s colonial past?

It looks like we had more cabinet secretaries and ministers than work done on the project. I do not want to repeat what my colleagues have asked, but is there a possibility that we can get a map of all the promises that were made and which ones have been completed and not completed? Can we also get a map of how many cabinet secretaries and ministers we had during that period? It is difficult for people like us who are new to the committee. I am sure that it will be clear for us to see when the project was promised and how much money was spent on the inquiries rather than the work.

Is the Scottish Government doing anything to protect the under-18s? The vaping industry is targeting youngsters, as well as non-smokers, with all these flavours, but I do not know whether the Government is doing anything about that.

You are right, convener—we need to find somebody else or some other organisations, because ASH will just agree with the Scottish Government. There might well be other organisations; indeed, we could have a round-table discussion with community organisations, too.

We should certainly ask for a breakdown of what other actions are planned.

I would be interested to know which officials were involved. My point goes back to you, convener: we need a clear map of where everything went wrong and how much money was spent on the inquiries.