To ask the Scottish Government how Scotland’s international culture strategy will support the aspirations of touring artists. (S6O-03329)

The Scottish Government recognises that the ability to tour and work internationally is vital to many creative professionals, and it is deeply regrettable that the United Kingdom Government’s decision to leave the European Union has made such activities significantly more difficult.

A key area of action of our international culture strategy will be to mitigate those impacts. As part of the strategy, we will work to push the UK Government and the EU to support visa-free arrangements for touring artists. In addition, we will work with the sector to explore new ways to support international mobility.

Touring is also a key element of cultural export and exchange activity in the sector. Therefore, we will also undertake a feasibility study on the development of a support service for cultural export and exchange that would help to support international touring and other international activity.

Last week, I attended a sobering round-table discussion with the face the music campaign, which is organised by the European Movement. A stark result of Brexit is that touring artists face visa barriers, as the Cabinet secretary has mentioned, and in addition, the additional paperwork around carnets and cabotage and a host of bureaucracy means that touring is now prohibitively expensive for many, both in time and resource.

I know through my work with the Parliamentary Partnership Assembly that those discussions have taken place, but they are very much focused on youth movement in Europe. What is the cabinet secretary’s advice on the conversations that he has had about Scotland’s wider cultural activities and opportunities?

It is the view of the Scottish Government that creative professionals should be added to the list of visa-exempt business travellers that are already contained in the EU-UK trade and co-operation agreement. That could be easily done through the review clauses of the TCA.

Scottish Government ministers and officials have regular discussions with their UK Government counterparts to make the case for an agreement to minimise all those barriers and for that issue to be raised with the European Commission. As set out in our international culture strategy, we will continue to push the UK Government to negotiate such an agreement and, incidentally, to rejoin creative Europe.

Of course, the Scottish Government wishes to see an independent Scotland rejoin the European Union, allowing touring artists to benefit once again from freedom of movement. Our recent paper, “Culture in an independent Scotland”, sets out our priorities for that to come about.

Touring artists are being priced out of Edinburgh due to escalating accommodation costs. The chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society described the current level of Scottish Government support for what is the largest arts festival in the world as a “national embarrassment” and said that the fringe was becoming “almost impossible” to deliver. What is the Scottish Government doing to support that event and those touring artists?

First, conversations and discussions between the Scottish Government and important festivals, including the Edinburgh festival fringe, are on-going and constant. The fringe is a jewel in our cultural crown—I say that as Cabinet secretary for culture, but also in my capacity as a member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Central. We need to work through the indubitable challenges across the creative and arts sectors; we will do that in partnership with the Edinburgh festival fringe and others.

Secondly, I observe that one of the particular challenges that we have with touring artists—that was the second part of the member’s question—is the difficulty, particularly for younger, less experienced people, of breaking through in the cultural and arts sector. Last week, we had a proposal from the European Commission that would have restored the ability of young people, including artists, to tour without any difficulty right across the European Union. Unfortunately, the first to decline that proposal was the UK Labour Party—incidentally, a party whose front-bench members are not even hearing culture questions today—and the second to decline it was the UK Government. That is extremely disappointing.