Roy, do you have anything that you want to add?

Thank you, everyone, for the questions and comments so far. Despite Brexit, inward mobility from the EU is still possible, with 20 per cent of Erasmus+ funding being spent by third countries. Just fewer than 34,000 people took part in higher education mobility, but we still do not have any data on that for Scotland. The Turing scheme differs in that it offers mobility worldwide, whereas 80 per cent of Erasmus+ awards had to be in Europe. Again, Scotland-specific data is unavailable. Why is the data unavailable? Who needs to process it so that we can get clarity? It seems that there is data from other parts of the process, but I am a bit unclear about why we do not have data. Perhaps Ms Jackson can answer the specific question, because it relates to your processes.

It is about SEEP.

I want to ask about the proposed Scottish graduate visa scheme. It would be useful to hear all our witnesses’ views on the idea of a tailored visa route for graduates from universities and colleges who want to stay in Scotland. Is there a willingness and a way forward for that? What might be the pros and cons of such a scheme? Could it unravel or could it progress? Would there be barriers to its succeeding? Perhaps Lesley Jackson could start and then we could go around the table.

Okay. Thank you, convener.

Roy, I suppose that universities and colleges will be the same, in that the timelines remain the biggest challenge in ensuring that they get the advantages of SEEP. How is that affecting your organisations?

The law of diminishing returns means that you are not able to progress in some respects.

It is commendable and to be welcomed that Creative Scotland has been awarded the multiyear funding, which will provide more stability for future planning for the arts and creative sector. However, what safeguards have been put in place to ensure that funding is correctly allocated going forward, and that is it is never again distributed to inappropriate projects such as the infamous Rein project?

I concur. That is something that needs to be righted, for that is a huge wrong.

Individuals are oppressed by the horrific crimes that we have heard about, and, as we mark Holocaust memorial day, it is also essential to mention Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history.

Every year in June, as part of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history month, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust remembers and commemorates the richness that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities bring to our everyday lives now and in the past. The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust also reminds us that, during the truly horrendous crimes of the 1940s, Jews were not the only people who were tackled by the Nazis and removed from their homelands and communities. For more than a decade, from about 1935, Europe’s Roma people, historically often labelled as Gypsies, were targeted by the Nazis, who wanted total annihilation of those individuals.

In 2023, I was delighted to host in the Parliament a group of young Gypsy Travellers who came from my region to talk about their experiences. They were happy to discuss their situations and said that, even today, they felt persecuted. They also wanted to know about the horrors of the Holocaust and how it affected generations of Travellers in the 1930s and 1940s.

It is all too easy for society to put labels on particular groups, whereas, in reality, people are all individuals with the right to learn, the right to be heard and the right to survive.

As I have said many times in the past, we should all be committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for every one of us. We deserve that in our communities. We want individuals to have the opportunity to participate, and we should not allow marginalised groups to be oppressed.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and I sincerely hope that Holocaust memorial day 2025 can be an opportunity for people to come together and learn from and about the past, and to take actions to make a better future. We must never forget these heinous crimes against humanity, and we must do all that we can to remember, remember, remember.

I am happy to speak in support of this important motion, and I congratulate my colleague Jackson Carlaw on bringing the debate to the chamber.

As the motion rightly says, 2025 marks 80 years since Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated, as well as the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia. This year’s Holocaust memorial day theme, “For a better future”, is highly appropriate, and never more have we needed it.

As the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust points out, antisemitism has increased significantly in the United Kingdom and globally. That is especially the case following the 7 October 2023 attacks in Israel, when about 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 hostages were seized, with the war in Gaza taking place thereafter. I note that many of the hostages have still not been released.

Extremists on all sides continue to exploit the situation in order to stir up anti-Muslim and antisemitic hatred in the UK. As a result, many communities across the UK are feeling vulnerable, with hostility and suspicion of others continuing to grow. We should all be concerned about that.

We must also never forget the well-documented genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.