I thank colleagues across the chamber for supporting the motion, which celebrates Commonwealth day.

In recent weeks, our press and media have highlighted the Commonwealth’s history and Britain’s colonial past. However, it is important that we do not let our Commonwealth of nations be defined by history; we should also celebrate the relationships and friendships between countries, which are demonstrated by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, and think about how we shape our future. The CPA brings together countries across the world to work together.

This year’s Commonwealth day theme was “Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming.” As the Queen said earlier this month in her Commonwealth day address, we should support one another and

“endeavour to ensure the Commonwealth remains an influential force for good in our world for many generations to come.”

The CPA is a fascinating collaboration. It represents 53 sovereign countries and 17,000 elected representatives, and there are more than 180 branches across the CPA. That is a quite a thought. There is a huge opportunity for the Commonwealth countries to come together and work together across the nine different regions—Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Americas and Atlantic region, the India region, the Pacific region, the south-east Asia region, and our own British islands and Mediterranean region. There are different experiences and geographical connections, and there is a real challenge for all of us in how we act as parliamentarians and elected representatives to deliver for our constituents every day of the week; how we promote engagement; how we involve people in our democratic structures to change people’s lives for the better; how we tackle the inequalities that exist across our world; and how we work together to tackle the global challenges that our world currently faces.

In the past two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has been a huge shock to our global economy, and it has changed the world as we know it. It has also exposed the inequalities between the well-developed nations and the global south in terms of vaccine distribution and the impact of Covid on people’s health.

We know that we face a climate and nature emergency. Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported before the 26th United Nations climate change conference of the parties—COP26—on the critical need to avoid exceeding the 1.5°C temperature rise and, last month, of course, there was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. How we work in our own geographic areas and how we work together to tackle those unprecedented global challenges is absolutely critical.

We need to work together on long-standing challenges. The International Labour Organization has estimated that more than 40 million people worldwide—40 per cent of whom live in the Commonwealth—are victims of modern slavery. I was shocked to find that statistic. The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative is promoting action, because one in every 150 people in the Commonwealth lives in modern slavery. That cannot be acceptable. There is work that we need to do together.

At the Commonwealth heads of Government meeting in the UK in 2018, every country committed to achieving the UN sustainable development goal of eradicating forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking by 2030. There are issues that we maybe do not regularly discuss in our Parliament but which affect Commonwealth citizens who are part of our CPA network. There is work to do in the UK to honour its commitment to end modern slavery. It must work with other nations, using its global influence, to transform people’s lives. I think that we can all agree on that.

Last week, it was a huge honour to be a member of the delegation from the Scottish branch of the CPA, along with my colleagues, that attended the 51st British islands and Mediterranean region regional conference on the Isle of Man. The theme was how we can improve scrutiny in our legislatures, and there were sessions on finance, diversity in our legislatures, and how we can make our legislatures the effective democracies that our citizens and our constituents need, in which we can exchange best practice and innovation and work together, rather than things to be taken for granted. There were some fantastic discussions, and we all agreed that we need to think about how we feed back to colleagues, because not everybody is at those events. We agreed that we need to think about how we feed back to ministers and members of Parliament and about how we work together.

Elena Whitham and I were at a women’s branch meeting. She beamed in; I was privileged to be there in person. We discussed what more we need to do to ensure that delegations are gender balanced, for example. Even having women’s representation is not something that we take for granted. Much more work needs to be done.

We were able to report on the work that we are going to do in the Scottish Parliament to look at women’s involvement in the Parliament and to tackle gender inequalities. Even though we have our highest-ever level of representation, there is still much more that we need to do. We can also share knowledge and best practice with other legislatures, and learn about work that has been done elsewhere.

Climate change came up at the conference. I was privileged to chair an event, and that was really impactful for me because, in October, I was involved in an all-female panel of parliamentarians, with representatives from Bangladesh, Australia, Canada and Scotland, that looked at how we tackle climate change, whatever legislature we represent. We thought about the multilevel, multistakeholder and collaborative nature of how we need to tackle climate change. That is very much at the heart of the Commonwealth and the issue of loss and damage. Climate finance came up at COP26. Last week, it was really good to discuss what different countries and branches are doing in a practical sense.

If we think about the British, Irish and Mediterranean regions, we realise that there are a lot of seas and buildings and there is a lot of land out there. We got into a really practical discussion about our ambitions, what the challenges are, how we can share best practice, and the research. We have a lot of research in Scotland in particular. Work is being done in our island areas, and there are lessons that we could share with others. There are discussions about grid network challenges. A lot of the discussion was about things that we are working on here, as well.

It was really good to share those issues. Every one of us said that our legislature on its own will not solve the climate crisis. We all know that, and we all need to take a collective share in tackling the challenges that a lot of Commonwealth countries already face in respect of increased temperatures, sea level rises, storm surges, droughts and floods. We need to ensure that we use our expertise and knowledge to work with others.

That was a great session. It was about sharing our expertise and not just having ambitions but delivering in practice. I very much look forward to our conclusions being fed into the wider CPA network.

Commonwealth day gives all of us an opportunity to think about how we work on a cross-party basis and as Opposition members. One of the things that I found really interesting last week was that not all legislatures have party-political representatives. That would be a bit of a shock for us here. People who are not party-political representatives are very much the exception to the rule here, although there are people in some of our local authorities who are not in political parties. How do ministers, members of the Opposition and back benchers collectively use our own knowledge? How do we share that experience? How do we work together? How can we make the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association deliver for everybody across the globe?

I quite often think that we have a lot of work to do in the Parliament, as we have more responsibilities and more scrutiny issues. However, when we talk to colleagues in other legislatures, we realise that there are quite a lot of us in the Parliament. Our challenge is how we can use every minute that we have to the best effect.

I take the hint from the Presiding Officer: I will finish there. I very much look forward to the contributions of other members.

On one level, that is very heartening—the cabinet secretaries are saying the kind of things that we like to hear. However, in a year’s time, post-pandemic, what will you be able to show us that has changed? As the convener said, Mr Yousaf, we are 11 years on from the Christie commission and we have not seen transformative change. We can all quote brilliant local projects, but they are facing massive post-pandemic pressure, and the evidence that we heard earlier in the meeting was that local authorities have had a decade of cuts and that culture is not core funded.

In 2026, GP access will be a real issue—that is 15 years on from Christie—and both of you have basically said that preventative spending is not just good but very important for pandemic recovery. What is the kick-start approach to delivery on the ground?

It feels like we lobby the cabinet secretary for culture weekly, but you have the big budget that has the potential to cut right across our communities. What can happen in the health budget that is transformative? It is not just about link workers, but about them working with local projects on the ground so that those projects are still there in a year’s time.

I will kick off with a question about whether we need core funding for community and cultural facilities, which are clearly integral to successful outcomes and the delivery of wider mental health and wellbeing benefits. The evidence that we have received shows that the financial pressures on councils over the past decade have particularly impacted on libraries, which are a key service for young people to be able to read, overcome educational inequalities and gain confidence. They are also important for older people and people accessing digital services.

The Accounts Commission said that funding for cultural services is not statutory, so they face “budget reductions” when local authorities face pressures. Is there an issue about core funding for local authorities? Should that be part of the process and do the heavy lifting—mentioned by lots of our witnesses during budget evidence—at community level to make the interconnections that some of you have talked about? I will start with Carol Calder from Audit Scotland.

That is helpful and clear evidence. It is 10 years since the Christie commission report, which basically said that we need more investment in such services to deliver on health and wellbeing and to support people with mental health issues. Given the pressures from the pandemic, should there not be more of a focus on those services as we come out of it to enable community investment to deliver on the transformative change that Christie recommended? Both the Auditor General and the interim chair of the Accounts Commission were very strong on that. What needs to change in capacity for local government to have the expenditure to put directly into Christie commission priorities, which would then take pressure off immediate front-line challenges?

That is a welcome commitment. You are booked for a year from now—

The test is not just the culture and creative budgets—it goes right across the public sector. That is the question for the Scottish Government with regard to cross-Government working: what are the budget issues? I say to the health secretary that the benefits of preventative spend are that you save money, but you have to start spending in order to get the infrastructure in.

I would therefore make a plea that goes back to your very opening comment about the commitment with regard to the 2026 target for GP access. The evidence we have had on social prescribing suggests that it could be very critical in helping people not just get through but recover from the pandemic, and it cuts across culture to take in, for example, mental health and wellbeing in young people, older people and people on low incomes. However, we heard evidence today that social prescribing is not reaching low-income communities in the way that we would want, so the question is how you make that transformative change now.

That is helpful—thank you so much. I will pick up on those points and take them to our other witnesses. I will start with Kirsty Cumming, because you made points in your submission about community investment for there to be investment on the ground. You talked about

“significant loss of reserves across public culture charities”

and a solvency issue due to the pandemic, as well as future pressures. Do we need core funding and more investment? How would you link that through to preventative investment that brings multiple benefits and to looking at outcomes rather than just inputs?

The need for core funding and multiyear funding in order to plan ahead and deliver comes across clearly. I ask Duncan Dornan the same questions about the funding aspect and the impact on wellbeing and preventative health, which was highlighted by the Christie commission.

That is pretty consistent feedback from the witnesses. I thank you all very much.

The Auditor General for Scotland published a blog entitled “Christie’s clarion call can’t wait another decade”, and, in October, the interim chair of the Accounts Commission published “Christie—it really is now or never”. Those are the representations that we are trying to get to centre stage.

We have had evidence from SENScot, Creative Scotland, Audit Scotland and COSLA that highlights the massive pressures arising from the pandemic. The cabinet secretary for culture will know about those—we have talked about them. The issue is what the recovery strategy will look like and what will change.

I am particularly interested in your views, cabinet secretary, on the recommendations from the national partnership for culture. Where will the funding come from? It could come from the culture budget, the health budget or the local government budget, but the question is what those funding streams will look like as part of a recovery plan. I am thinking about not just the short term but the long-term, multiyear funding that we have had calls for.