Seòmar agus comataidhean

You have mentioned the undoubtedly harsh budget context from the UK Government. We will talk about the culture part of that. You touched on how Creative Scotland might be compensated for reduced lottery funding. Will you say a bit more about what the Scottish Government has done in that area?

I am sure that others will also have questions about Ukraine. You mentioned a sanctions package that has been pursued at EU level. Will the presidency seek to develop that into new areas?

Creative Scotland pointed out the issue to us in previous evidence. Am I right in thinking that the Scottish Government has compensated it for generally reduced lottery funding?

I echo what the convener says. However complex the relationship between the UK and the EU may be, there is a very warm relationship with Scotland that I hope we can continue to develop.

As the convener also said, a number of us have questions about Ukraine. When we talk about Ukraine, it is difficult to separate the collective EU response and the interest that we have in the Swedish response to the situation. I do not know which you want to talk about, but it would be nice to hear both perspectives on how you reacted to the situation in Ukraine.

Have the decisions that the UK Government has made about ending Covid recovery funding and the timing of those decisions had any impact on the situation in Scotland and how you have had to respond to it?

I am returning to a familiar theme, Alex Paterson, but it is one that you mentioned—the reopening of the estate. HES has had an uplift, although I appreciate that it is one that you needed, given the enormous estate that you have to maintain in difficult times and the lack of ticket revenue that you have had. What plans do you have to move back to the model of selling tickets on more sites? How many sites are presently closed?

It is fair to say that you have a sympathetic audience in the committee when it comes to the need for a positive trajectory on funding, which you have talked about. The only rider to that would be—and this is not meant to take away from anything that you have said—that the Scottish Government could probably do with a positive trajectory, too, and some notice on or say over its income. However, I think that everything that you have said rings true.

Given the constraints, we are left with cross-portfolio working. The committee has asked about that many times, in relation not just to the culture sector but to other parts of Government. My question is one for everybody to chip in on. We talk about cross-portfolio working all the time, but how do we make it real? In the committee, we have often talked about things such as social prescribing and cultural prescribing. Iain Munro rightly pointed out that that is supplementary to his budget. The problem is that the health boards tell us that it is supplementary to their budgets, too. I do not know what the answer is, so I am genuinely keen to hear how we can make that a reality. We have talked about it many times and it is clear from the pilot studies that have been done around the country that the health service and society more generally could save money and people could be healthier and happier if we did more of that work. In the current difficult circumstances, how do we achieve that?

As I said, the question was for anyone to chip in on; that is what these round-table meetings are really for. Does anyone else have a view?

Thank you.

You might have touched on some of this already, cabinet secretary. Last year, we sought to unpick what “financial transactions” meant in the budget. This year, we might seek to unpick “business development” a bit further. It will be interesting to know whether that budget will cover the Farm Advisory Service, the knowledge transfer and innovation fund and the small farms grant scheme, and whether the support for those areas will be continued to the same level under that heading.