 Yrdarllun cyfw�ifr, rydyn ni'n gwneud, rhaglachau gwahanol mewn gwahodr a'r diwrnod, os yw gwybod fe gyd y cwmbedig, a tyfnod y byddai gyfrofi. Y dyfodol busnes yw ddyddiadion wahanol, ac ydy sefydliadwyr yw ddiwyddiadion, yw eich sefydliad? Rydyn ni'n gwneud y ddyddiriaeth a'u ddodur o'r gyffin. Rydym i nhw'r provider o'r cwmbeithio'i gŸrach fel yr unaf, asrـr supplementary. The other questions. Could you please press a request to speak buttons at the point of the relevant questions? We have quite a bit of interest this afternoon in some questions more than others, it won't surprise you to learn so I would appreciate succinct questions and succinct answers from the ministerial team as well and with that I call question number one, Jillian Martin. Thank you Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it's giving to people in the creative industries where are self-employed and may have Work that is cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government recognises the substantial challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic has presented to self-employed people and freelancers in the creative industries. We have already provided £240 million to the culture sector over the pandemic. That includes £65 million to help alleviate the financial pressures that both individuals and businesses have grandmaem yr mŵer ma fought freely the support includes the support includes a £10 million cancellation fund for creative freelancers to support freelancers experiencing immediate financial hardship following cancellations self-employed individuals operating as a cultural organisation are eligible for the new £25 million Covid-19 cancellation fund for cultural organisations via creative Scotland. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. I would like to ask him how many freelancers have applied to the cancellation fund for creative freelancers since it opened in the first week of January, and to ask of the money that they can claim will extend to the hiring of equipment, which they may have also had to cancel. There will be an issue for many freelancers in television production and live music in particular. The member is absolutely right. As of yesterday, that was the 19th of January, there have been 1,728 applications to the Creative Scotland Freelancers Cancelation Fund, requesting a total of £2.94 million. 61 per cent of the applications are from freelancers in the music sector. Creative Scotland has so far paid £1.05 million to freelancers. For the Freelancers Fund, applicants need to evidence cancellation, and then they self-assess what the cost of cancellation is up to the £2,000 limit. Specific to the question, a creative freelancer can include hire of equipment in their application as long as the claim does not exceed £2,000. I thank the cabinet secretary for what flexibility is in the guidance to support people to keep them in our creative industries now, especially those who have had to work incredibly hard to juggle behind the scenes, and who have had to try to get work in other sectors, but have basically not managed to keep going because of the lack of employment. I can give the absolute assurance that the assessment of funding that has been undertaken by Creative Scotland, to whom I pay tribute incidentally, because a lot of hard work has had to go into getting the schemes up and running during the festive season, dealing with closures in December, January and eventually through to March. Flexibility is being shown in the assessment of claims that are being made, especially to hone in on individuals and businesses who are facing insolvency. I want to give her and other colleagues across the chamber the assurance that Creative Scotland and the assessment process is ensuring that there is an understanding of the existential challenge that people and businesses are facing. I appeal to colleagues if they are aware of any cases where decisions are not being taken as expeditiously as they might perhaps in these extreme circumstances to please raise them with me, and I will ensure that Creative Scotland will look at that. I have no reason to believe that that is the case, but I want to ensure that people are aware that a great effort is being undertaken to undertake those steps as quickly as possible. To ask the Scottish Government what staffing resources it has allocated to the preparation work for a new independence referendum. Work on the programme for government commitments to hold an independence referendum and develop a prospectus for independence within this parliamentary term is being co-ordinated by the constitution and cabinet directorate officials in teams across a range of portfolios will contribute to the work as part of their wider responsibilities to support the Scottish Government. I am pleased that Maurice Golden acknowledges in his question that there will be a new independence referendum, and we intend that to be conducted during this parliamentary term. Children's education has suffered. The NHS is stretched to breaking point and the economy is still fragile. Even the SNP must recognise recovering from the pandemic is the real priority for the people of Scotland. Does the cabinet secretary not see that another damaging, disruptive, divisive referendum will put the recovery at risk? I gently say to Maurice Golden that he was rehearsing the speeches that he was giving during the Scottish Parliament election campaign clearly. This question has been settled. His party and my party went to the public to ask for their support in an election. His party lost that election. The Scottish National Party and the Scottish Green Party were elected on a mandate to conduct a referendum during this parliamentary term. Normally in democracies, opposition parties try to hold the Government to account to deliver what they have promised to do in their manifesto. We were elected with a mandate to deliver a referendum. I look forward to Maurice Golden ensuring that we do just that. I hope to be happy that we deliver on a manifesto promise that we were elected to deliver. We have a number of supplementaries here. I will try to get through as many as I can. First, Kenny Gibson. Can the cabinet secretary advise the chamber how staffing resources are allocated to preparing for a new independence referendum, compared to the number of staff currently dealing with Brexit more than a year after we left the European Union? As I explained previously, staff from a number of parts of the Scottish Government will be involved in work to prepare for a referendum on independence. To put that in context, civil servants from business areas all over the Scottish Government continue to work on matters resulting from the UK Government's determination to pursue a hard Brexit against the democratic will of the people of Scotland, such as the estimated £9 billion cut to Scotland's GDP by 2030 and the damage to Scottish businesses wishing to trade with the EU facing all sorts of unnecessary new barriers. That work has, for example, required some 98 separate pieces of secondary legislation alone just to keep the statute law working. Just because the Tories have got it wrong does not mean that the SNP have to get it wrong as well. I just cannot believe my ears. I stood on a platform, I shared a platform with the First Minister throughout the election campaign and I heard her say that she would not push forward with an independence referendum until the pandemic was over, but we know fine well that the virus is still amongst us. Here we have a minister devoting scarce resources to an independence campaign. Just what on earth is he thinking? I would have thought for somebody who is espousing liberalism and democracy that they would recognise an election result. Governments need to do a great many things, and one of the things that we are going to be doing, because we were elected to do so in a democracy, is to conduct a referendum during this parliamentary term. I am sure Willie Rennie would be at the front of the queue if the preparation work was not being made in the run-up to that referendum. I welcome this allocation of resource to honour the SNP's manifesto commitment to deliver a referendum in this term and also the Scottish Government's programme for government. I wonder whether those preparations might include looking into whether or not the better together promises that were made in 2014 have since been honoured. I can certainly raise that when we get to that stage of the preparations. I do not think that it will take a long time to research whether the promises and the threats that were raised by the better together campaign of the Liberal Democrats, the Labour Party and the Conservative Party who campaign together have been broken or not, because most of them have. Can the cabinet secretary advise whether preparation work for an independence referendum will be looking at how the UK has ffaird economically and socially in the 21st century compared to its neighbours in north-west Europe? I give my colleague an absolute assurance that the answer is yes and with good reason. I ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the discussions that it has had with the UK Government regarding people seeking resettlement in the UK who could be relocated to Scotland if they already have existing family connections, including in relation to correspondence with MSPs on this matter. I thank Katie Clark, who is persistent on this issue. I know that she cares about this deeply. We engage regularly with the UK Government, with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, with individual local authorities and other partners to ensure that people are provided with the safety and security that they need to rebuild their lives in this country. The UK Government is responsible for refugee resettlement and relocation and the Home Office for the provision of accommodation. However, we continue to request that consideration is given to preferences, including where there are family and other connections wherever possible. Scotland is committed to playing our part in welcoming people fleeing Afghanistan. I am delighted that all of Scotland's 32 local authorities have confirmed their participation in the scheme. My experience, and I suspect that of others in the chamber, is that the Home Office is not responding to correspondence from MSPs or MPs who are acting on behalf of individuals who are trying to get out of Afghanistan. An investigation by Open Democracy in December found that more than 99 per cent of calls to the UK Government helpline were unanswered and only 5 per cent had received the necessary assistance. Would the cabinet secretary be willing to use his role to take the issue up with the Home Office and ask that more resources are put into this work? The situation with the Home Office is hugely disappointing. I think that people in the circumstances that they find themselves in deserve respect and deserve their situation to be dealt with expeditiously and with consideration and empathy. Can I encourage her and any other members of the chamber who have the experience, which is not a rare one, unfortunately, please feel free to forward on any constituent correspondence on this? I will be happy to take that up with the Home Office. Although I have to say to her that I am not brimming with confidence that the Home Office will miraculously change the course of the way that it has been dealing with it, I would be happy to raise any constituency cases that she or other MSPs across the chambers might have. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with the UK Government regarding the resettlement scheme for Afghan refugees who may be resettled in Scotland. The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government met with Victoria Atkins, the UK Minister for Afghan Resettlement on 10 January to discuss the launch of the UK's Afghanistan citizens resettlement scheme. At this meeting, she raised the issue of property offers made by local authorities waiting to be matched by Afghan families and the need to do so as soon as possible. She reiterated that funding provided by the UK Government to support Afghan families in Scotland needs to accurately reflect the need in Scotland. She was also agreed that more regular foreign-nation engagement will take place to discuss Afghanistan resettlement across the UK, which I know that the cabinet secretary looks forward to. I thank the minister for his response. The UNHCR can only register Afghan citizens as refugees or asylum seekers once they are outside of Afghanistan and in another country, but there are still those in Afghanistan who remain at severe risk from the Taliban, especially if they are caught trying to travel to Iran or Pakistan to seek asylum through the UNHCR. Will the Scottish Government push the UK Government to clarify which safe routes will be available through the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme, particularly for those who would be at risk travelling to another country to seek asylum? That is an entirely reasonable suggestion, although we also need to bear in mind that some of the routes for people to take leaving Afghanistan have an understandable cloak of secrecy so that the Taliban are then not able to pursue those who are seeking refuge in other countries. I will consider the questioner's request, and we are in regular touch with the Home Office. Having greater clarity on that is definitely something that we would all welcome, although it is also accepting that there is necessary secrecy for some of the routes through which refugees are able to safely get out of Afghanistan in the current circumstances. Do you ask the Scottish Government what assessment has been made of the impact of Covid-19 restrictions over the festive period on theatres and other performance venues? I am sorry, minister. We do not appear to be able to hear you just at the moment. We might want to start your response again and see if that has been resolved. I am afraid that it is still not working if you bear with us just a minute. Will we just go to the cabinet secretary in the meantime for the response, and we will come back to you and try to resolve your microphone issues for the subsequent questions? The Omicron variant has come at a particularly challenging time for the sector, a time where recovery from previous waves of the pandemic was beginning and significant sales for Christmas shows were predicted. I have spoken to theatre groups and performance venues directly and received daily updates about the impact that Covid-19 restrictions are having on the sector. The Scottish Government has made available £31.5 million to support cultural businesses, organisations, venue and independent cinema support and grassroots venues. The impact assessments associated with the restrictions, including a business and regulatory impact assessment, will be published in the coming weeks. I am grateful to the cabinet secretary for understudying for his minister at that short notice. I am grateful for that reply. Capital theatres in Edinburgh lost dozens of performances across the festive period. The King's Theatre alone lost 36. That comes as it does after two years of missed Edinburgh festival performance. Cabinet secretary, those are paying months for Edinburgh's theatre industry. Please tell us what more your Government will do to support the theatre industry in its revival. Speaking both, there is a cabinet secretary for culture of the MSP for Edinburgh Central and many of the cultural venues in the capital. I say to the member for Edinburgh West that I am absolutely seized of the issue. There is a challenge to the scale of which we understand the fact that the Scottish Government reached very speedy agreement to find £65 million just prior to Christmas to address the scale of the challenge. I think that evidence is the seriousness with which we take the challenge. However, I would say to absolutely everybody in the chamber that we all have a role just as we are beginning to hopefully take the early stages with early confidence as we emerge from this variant of Covid, that we can support our cultural venues, that we can go and attend shows and concerts and exhibitions and the like. I think that we need a twin-pronged approach. We need to support our venues that have suffered over recent weeks and months, but we need to make sure that as we are able to return and support the cultural sector that we do so wholeheartedly. I would appeal to him and everybody else in the chamber pleased to join us in doing so. I am very brief supplementary voice of territory. Thank you very much. The city of Edinburgh was particularly hit hard when restrictions were imposed with no notice to the cultural sector, including our treasured theatres. Many were left in limbo without the financial support that was needed to keep the sector going. Can the cabinet secretary assure the chamber and indeed the cultural sector that if restrictions were to be imposed, adequate notice is given to prepare the sector and financial resources ready to be disparate to the cultural venues? That is a very important question. We have throughout the circumstances had the closest working relationship with the cultural sector. I have spent many teams' calls with people right across Scotland's culture and artistic community. At the earliest point that any notice can be given of any public health measures, they are shared with the sector, as they are with the wider business community. I hope, as I am sure he does, that there will be no necessity to return to any form of safeguards restrictions that will impact on the cultural community. In the meantime, we will do everything that we can to disperse the necessary funds to ensure that individuals, businesses, venues and so on remain solvent and are able to bounce back. In my appeal to a colleague from the Liberal Democrat benches, I do to him as well, to all colleagues in Edinburgh and throughout the rest of the country, please let's do everything that we can to give us much confidence to people returning and supporting the cultural sector in our venues, and that will give them the greatest chance of success. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the culture minister has had with ministerial colleagues regarding culture-led regeneration of our town centres. I want to see culture play a crucial role in the regeneration of town centres as we look towards recovery from the pandemic. Mainstreaming culture across Government portfolios is a central part of our current work. The Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution and External Affairs and Culture and I held ministerial bilash laws on this last week and only yesterday. Our discussion with the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy specifically explored culture's role in regeneration and our commitment to ensuring that no places or people are left behind. I also intend to discuss this with Tom Arthur, who has ministerial responsibility for town centres. I thank the minister for that answer. From Wigton Booktown to the Stove network in Dumfries, which led to the development of the Medestepal quarters, there are many good examples of culture-led regeneration across Dumfries and Galloway. Given the big crisis that our town centres face, does the minister share my view that we need to redouble our efforts by increasing the support that we give to culture-led community-driven regeneration and not just have a town centre approach when it comes to issues such as planning but when it comes to funding for new cultural facilities in our towns? I thank Colin Smith for his supplementary question. I broadly agree with the sentiment of what he has outlined. As he will know, we have a manifestal commitment to develop a national towns of culture scheme. We start to scope in what that scheme will look like. I think that there is a real ambition there to create a network across the whole of Scotland celebrating our towns and their unique stories. That is particularly pertinent, given that 2022 marks Scotland's year of stories. The scheme itself is going to build on Scotland's strong track record of taking a place-based approach to our cultural programmes, such as our innovative culture collective scheme launched last year. I know that, in Mr Smith's region, the Stove network do fantastic work in the community and are currently benefiting from the support of our culture collective funding. More broadly, with regard to funding and how we link up better across different Government departments, I hope that Mr Smith has listened to my original answer in which I alluded to in my meeting with Mr Arthur. With regard to the regeneration of town centres, I would like to speak to Mr Arthur about this, to ensure that we get that greater policy coherence. However, in terms of funding in communities, the Cabinet Secretary and I are absolutely committed to driving a cultural recovery from the pandemic, which is rooted in our community. In Renfanshire spending and culture and heritage decreased by over a third between 2016 and 2019. Clickmanusher saw a drop of 27 per cent and Glasgow 18 per cent. How will she then promote culture locally when some of her councils are slashing their arts and heritage budgets by a third? As briefly as possible, please, minister. I think that Shandau raises a really important point, which is the role of local authorities in the delivery of culture locally. One of the important ways that we can do this, while respecting the autonomy of local authorities, is through the culture conveners group, which I met just before Christmas and which I will be meeting with in March. I hope that gives Shandau reassurance that I take this matter very seriously. I think that it is imperative that we look at the different approaches that local authorities are using and ensure equity of access across the country in terms of our cultural services. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it is supporting people working in the cultural and arts sector. I appreciate that this is a difficult time for the culture sector, even with the announcement of the easing of restrictions on Tuesday. The Scottish Government has previously provided £175 million of emergency funding to the culture, heritage and events sectors since the start of the pandemic. As a result of the recent restrictions, we announced an additional £65 million for the sector. That includes £31.5 million for cultural businesses, organisations, venues and independent cinemas and grassroots venues, £2 million for the national performing companies, £10 million for freelancers, £19.8 million for the events sector and £1.7 million for museums, galleries and heritage. I thank the minister for that answer. Following the First Minister's announcement in December requiring theatres to be restricted until next week, I have been contacted by constituents working for the ambassador theatre group in Glasgow who work across the King's theatre and the theatre royal. ATG took the decision not to call up any of their zero hours contracts or casual workers during the period of closure. That has meant that 150 of my constituents have lost out on at least four weeks pay. Instead to ease the financial burden, it was recommended by ATG that they use their holiday hours. Fully contracted staff of course have continued to receive full pay. Those workers support moves to stop the spread of the virus, but does the cabinet secretary and the minister agree with me that workers should not shoulder the financial burden of those decisions and can she guarantee that any emergency funding being offered to arts and events organisations is contingent on conditions that do not use zero hour contracts and that all zero hours staff are compensated for the loss of earnings? I would share Pam Duncan-Glancy's concerns about zero hours workers not being supported for their losses as a result of theatre closures. I am aware of the situation in Glasgow. My officials have discussed the issue of zero hours contractors in the cultural sector with Creative Scotland who Ms Duncan-Glancy will appreciate administrative ministers' funds. As she will know, the freelancers cancellation fund does exclude zero hours contract staff. However, the cultural organisations cancellation fund does not exclude organisations from applying for costs for their zero hours contract staff. I would expect any organisation who applies to the Creative Scotland cultural organisations cancellation fund to use any money that they receive to pay all staff that they employ. That should include any zero hours contract staff. I hope that that reassures Ms Duncan-Glancy. Can the minister provide any further detail as to what assessment has been made regarding the impact of the removal of furlough on people who are working in the culture sector? Presiding Officer, a journeyment was absolutely correct to point to the importance of furlough to the creative sector throughout the pandemic. It provided a layer of financial support, which we, as a devolved Government, simply could not. Its removal has increased anxiety in the sector and has led to many creatives simply walking away. The First Minister voted to the Prime Minister in December on this matter, and it was also raised in the Four Nations culture call on Tuesday of last week. To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of the live, music and night-time industry sectors and what was discussed. Since the pandemic started, the Scottish Government has engaged regularly with the live, music and night-time industries to discuss issues such as guidance and business support. The Minister for Business, Ivan McKee, who is responsible for night-time industries, last met the night-time industries association on 12 January. I met music industry representatives on 22 December, along with the cabinet secretary, to discuss the impact of Omicron. Most recently, I met Celtic Connections and Glasgow Life on 18 January. Minister, the live music, night-time economy and hospitality sectors in the north-east continue to suffer as a result of the vaccine passport. With the night-time industries association highlighting losses of up to 30 per cent in trade, when will the Scottish Government heed the calls of business owners and scrap this punitive scheme? I apologise, but I cannot show the sentiment of the question from the member. I have to say that the number of cultural organisations that the cabinet secretary and I have met welcomed the vaccine passport scheme. They welcomed it because it allowed them to stay open and to stay open safely. It is fundamentally crucial to us reopening safely and to allowing our cultural venues to open and to succeed in the coming years and months. We very much hope that the challenges that the sector faces this Christmas will be behind them. However, the vaccine passport system has not been rejected by those in the cultural sector, so I cannot agree with the sentiment of the member's question. And due to the technical difficulties, I will overrun this a little further to allow a supplementary from Stephanie Callahan, but as briefly as possible, Ms Callahan. Presiding Officer, we have heard already that event cancellations are having a substantial effect on the live music sector. Does the minister believe that the reinsurance scheme is currently provided by the UK Government go far enough to protect the sector? Again, as briefly as possible, please minister. Presiding Officer, the Scottish Government has called for the UK Government to take action to address the market failure for events insurance since the pandemic began. The UK Government responded to those calls on 5 August last year, with the announcement of an £800 million scheme, which extends to Scotland. However, it is regrettable that the UK Government shows not to engage with Scottish ministers on the scheme's development. I know that many stakeholders have also indicated that the scheme is not working in practice, but that means that event organisers cannot afford the costs of the UK Government scheme, which they argue is financially prohibitive. I reiterate our call on the UK Government to work with the sector to identify improvements to the scheme and to raise this matter most recently during the four nations culture ministers call. Thank you very much minister. That concludes portfolio questions. There will be a brief pause while the front benches change for the next item of business.