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I absolutely respect that position, Sue, and the Official Report will show that. I am grateful for that.

I presume that the clerks will pass the message on to the now-approved CPG. It is now my intention to move the—

Thank you very much for that. Your apology is noted.

That is helpful. Thank you.

I note that the number of MSPs who have indicated an intention to join the group meets the requirement for a cross-party group.

There are no further questions. I will refrain from asking the primary school teacher’s question of, “How are you defining Europe?”

The committee will consider whether to accord recognition to the proposed group in the next agenda item, and the clerks will notify you of the outcome in due course. Thank you for attending today.

Agenda item 4 is consideration of whether to accord recognition to the proposed cross-party group on Europe. Do members have any comments?

Sue Webber wants to speak. Before she does, I am appalled at myself for forgetting that Edward Mountain sent his apologies because other parliamentary duties are taking up his time today. I welcome Sue as his substitute and apologise for not doing that before greeting Alexander Stewart.

Thank you all for your contributions. I will now invite various members of the committee to ask questions. As all conveners say—across the whole world, I have now discovered—not everyone needs to answer the questions but, if you have something that you would like to contribute, please type R in the chat function or indicate to me.

I will pass questioning over to Collette Stevenson, who is a great advocate of committee visits.

I will push you slightly on that point. We have discussed the committees, CPGs and other areas of interaction. A comment that we have heard on a number of occasions, from different sources, is that the hybrid method that we use reduces the gravitas—to pick up on the word that you used—and importance of the Parliament. Would you agree with that? Should we be cognisant of, and guard against, that issue? Are we moving into a time when those outside the Parliament who engage with it are fully aware of the importance of the Parliament and, at times, perhaps need the Parliament to be aware of its own importance?

Thank you.That is helpful.

That is very helpful, thank you. Charis, what are your comments on the experiences of the past 18 months?