Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you for your answers. Unlike in the Canadian example that was given, there are cases where the UK Government is obliged to consult the Scottish Parliament, but it has become increasingly normalised for it to ignore what is said. It is able to do that. In fact, the UK Government describes it as a self-denying ordinance as to whether it will take any notice of what is said.

To what extent do the international activities of Quebec reflect and build on any discretion that it has on immigration? I understand that you have a slightly decentralised immigration system. In Scotland we are suffering depopulation, so the extent to which we should have freedom of action on immigration is a matter of interest. We used to have that under something called the fresh talent initiative. To what extent does Quebec make use of such discretion?

As well as being as vigilant as ever for any rising incidence of antisemitism or anti-Islamic sentiment, we should acknowledge the fact that, by and large, people in Scotland have not gone down that route. We should be quick to condemn, but we should also praise.

Even from a distance, though, to see the Hamas attack in which more than 1,000 people were killed in the first week of October, and then to see that more than 8,000 people in Gaza were killed, was horrifying. I recall, in particular, the incident about which it was reported that although one Hamas commander was killed so were 400 ordinary people and many others, including children, are still lying under rubble. My concern now is Hezbollah’s threat to start attacking tomorrow if there is not a ceasefire—I think that it tried to lay down those terms overnight. I do not know the extent to which the Scottish Government will have any information or a view on that. With the largest American naval fleet since the second world war being stationed in the middle east, the real worry is that situation will become a genuinely geopolitical conflagration that goes off in different directions. Does the Scottish Government have any line of sight on the thinking around that or what is being done to prevent it from happening?

I have one final question. If we accept, as some of us do, that we have had 13 years of austerity and reducing budgets and that a largely fixed budget is apportioned to the Scottish Government depending on what happens elsewhere in the United Kingdom, we can see that those 13 years are really starting to have an effect. As I mentioned earlier, one thing that we heard from the organisations last week was that the increasing costs are sitting alongside relatively standstill budgets.

In addition to the assurance that you have given that nobody will receive a cut—it is really important to get that message out—will you continue to keep your eyes open and to focus your efforts on anything further that can be done to help individual actors in the sector to deal with the extraordinary pressures that they currently face, not least in relation to energy costs, although we have also been hearing about talent loss, with talent going to London especially?

It will require only a yes or no answer, if the cabinet secretary can do that.

Of the members of the committee, I think that I and the convener have been here longest. In the 16 years that I have been here, I have never heard a proposal from an Opposition party to increase the culture budget.

As we are duty bound to look at other ways in which we could increase the budget, I asked the witnesses last week whether they could provide any evidence of that from comparative devolved areas. However, the examples that they provided—from Canada, Korea, Quebec and Catalonia—are not really comparable. If the Government has any information from other devolved areas, as akin to Scotland as possible, and how they do this, it would therefore be useful if it could provide that to the committee.

I will say a bit about the bigger picture. Mr Bibby read out a lengthy list of quotes, but he did not quote any of the evidence that we heard about the cause of the issue being not the Scottish Government but inflation, Brexit and huge increases in energy costs, all of which were itemised. There were also quite a number of positive comments, as well as the fact, which was quite surprising to me, that in Scotland, some parts of the sector have higher wage levels than those in London. I mention that for context.

One thing that I find a bit murky is that the tenor of today’s evidence is very different from what we heard last week. Crucially, in relation to the issue of reserves, which is central to a lot of this, I asked Creative Scotland whether a single penny of the reserves had derived from the Scottish Government, and it said no. That seems to be at odds with what you said, cabinet secretary.

From what I read in the evidence, the Scottish Government has continually topped up a reducing level of funding from the national lottery. For clarity, is it your view that the Scottish Government has contributed to the reserves, which are quite legitimately being used in this situation?

I asked about the comparison with England and Wales, and you said that the figure is equivalent. Were you saying that the average for England and Wales, or for the UK and Wales, is equivalent to the European average or to what is spent in Scotland?

You mentioned the UK context, which you said is important for the sector. We have had 13 years of austerity, in which budgets have declined. There is some pretty challenging stuff in your submission, and in what you have said about the Scottish Government. Do you think that the sector is—in the words of Alexander Stewart—being attacked by the Scottish Government or seen as “expendable”? Do you think that you are being treated differently from other parts of the budget?

May I ask a final quick question? I am trying to view the situation from the point of view of a member of the public. For 13 years we have had cuts to the global budget because of austerity. As you said, we cannot take the issue in isolation; we must look at the context. Such cuts have the cumulative effect of wearing people down over time. Do you think that the public would be surprised to find out that it takes until, say, year 13—I am not sure that that is the case; you can tell me if it is not—for you to think about starting to use reserves to address such issues? I realise that reserves can be held for various purposes, including for a rainy day. Do you not think that, after 13 years of austerity, the rainy day might have arrived? How might the public perceive that?

I am quite new to the committee, and I am stunned by how unremittingly bleak the experience has been, although it has been made lighter by the high-quality analogies that have been used. There have been aquatic ones and ones about climate change, which have been better than those I have heard in any other committee I have been on.

The international aspect of the financial pressures is interesting. We heard about high interest rates, inflation, Brexit and a 400 per cent increase in energy costs. You brushed over the implications of that quite quickly, but there will be implications for the Scottish Government across the board, not just in relation to culture.

In relation to the festivals, we are pretty much done—the international reputation has gone, to the extent that people who come here are shocked and want to give us an aid package. I have heard people elsewhere say that we still have an excellent reputation, but I take it that that was for the non-festival sector.

A couple of examples from Canada and South Korea were raised, but they are vitally different from Scotland in important respects. They do not have financial pressures to the same extent, and they do not have Brexit. They do not have devolution, so they do not have a predetermined budget. There was also reference to London, which is not as relevant as it might be. Rather than giving answers just now, if people were able to provide information in writing on what the situation is in Europe or the rest of the UK, that would certainly be useful.

I turn to Mark Ruskell’s question on the transient visitor levy. There is potential there, but I wonder whether it might end up having a very unequal impact, given what the likely dividends would be for different local authorities across the country. I would not be averse to trying to safeguard the dividends. We heard that there is real danger that they might just go into core funding. There are ways in which they could be safeguarded. Local authorities would rail against ring fencing, but perhaps there could be some agreement through the Verity house agreement or others. Would the levy strengthen areas that are already strong and do very little for more rural areas with dispersed populations? I am interested in hearing the panel’s thoughts on that.

I have a few quick questions related to the last point that you made, when you made the comparison between Scotland and the European average. Do you know the relevant figures for the rest of the UK? What percentage of the UK’s total expenditure is on culture, and can you include Wales in that?