Seòmar agus comataidhean

Okay, that concludes the committee’s questions. I thank you all for your attendance at the committee this morning, and we will now move into private session.

Mr Addy, you talked about having to fly under the radar with a partner to do work in Europe now, and how that did not used to happen. The committee has heard a lot about how our detriment has been Ireland’s gain, as a lot of companies have registered themselves in Ireland, particularly in service areas where we do not have the same arrangement under the TCA as we have with the trade of goods.

Have you seen Scottish firms losing out to architects from Ireland, who are winning contracts abroad because they have similar advantages to us with regard to speaking English and having those recognised standards?

Our second agenda item is to continue to take evidence on the second phase of our inquiry in relation to the review of the European Union-United Kingdom Trade and Co-operation Agreement, focusing on trade in services. I declare an interest, as I am a member of the British Computer Society.

We are joined by Vivienne Mackinnon, director of veterinary partnerships in the school of veterinary medicine at Scotland’s Rural College and junior vice-president of the Scottish branch of the British Veterinary Association; Dr Joseph Maguire, associate professor in the school of computing science at the University of Glasgow and co-chair of the Scottish computing education committee of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT; and Ben Addy, managing director of Moxon Architects and member of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. Thank you for your attendance.

I will open with a broad question. How has the TCA impacted your sector, in terms of trade in services, and what differences do you see between the situation pre-Brexit and post-Brexit? I will ask Vivienne to start.

Good morning and a warm welcome to the 27th meeting of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee in 2024. We have received apologies from Keith Brown MSP and his substitute is Jackie Dunbar MSP. Welcome back, Ms Dunbar.

Our first agenda item is a decision on taking business in private. Are members content to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you. Can we have the volume of the witnesses up a bit, please? Thank you. This room is a terrible echo chamber sometimes.

I will invite committee members to question the witnesses.

In relation to workforce issues, the Department for Work and Pensions access to work programme offers people a lot of support in the workplace, such as support with travelling to work and the offer of support workers who can be with people full time. Is there enough knowledge of that support? Is it difficult to access? What work do you do with the DWP to ensure that people can access as much support as is available at the moment?

Good morning, minister. I am substituting today, so I am new to some of the agenda here. In your opening statement, you talked about the world-leading legislation that has been passed and the gap between ambition and implementation. I have been around for quite a while—I remember the first-ever autism strategy being launched and voting on some of the key pieces of legislation—and I am really concerned that implementation has not met that standard. I would like to find out more about data, how you will measure progress and the accountability mechanisms that will be built into the bill.

The specific example that I know most about, which is in education, is co-ordinated support plans for young people. Those are legislatively underpinned, but what happens on the ground is that people get a plan that is called anything but a co-ordinated support plan, which frustrates the whole process. We know that the Parliament has really struggled with post-legislative review. How will you ensure that the bill achieves the culture change that you are talking about among our delivery services and partners, such as the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, education services and the national health service?

I have had every assurance from those who have given evidence that the work has not stopped just because the bill has been delayed.

Thank you, convener. I have no relevant interests to declare.

Thank you all for attending. I remember speaking in the debate in 2020 and saying that I wanted the space to be a museum without walls along the model of the National Theatre of Scotland. We need to get that message out about it being everywhere but nowhere.

That said, I visited the Canadian museum for human rights in Winnipeg, where incredible work is done to recognise human rights issues not only for First Nations people but right the way through history and around the world. The museum recognises all the genocides, even the ones that we do not recognise. It was profound.

You have a difficult dilemma in trying to strike the balance, but I wish you all the best in progressing the work. We have taken on board everything that you said about what you want our asks of the Government and the cabinet secretaries to be.