Will the First Minister provide an assurance that, although budgetary pressures mean that the Scottish Government is not currently able to commit to the empire, slavery and Scotland’s museums steering group’s suggestion that it receive £5 million for its work—which includes bringing forward plans for a dedicated space to address Scotland’s role in empire, colonialism and historical slavery—that work has not been ruled out for the future, and that consideration will be given to locating such a facility in my Greenock and Inverclyde constituency, given its links with the transatlantic slave trade?

The Scottish Government has allocated £200,000 in this year’s budget to support the on-going work related to the empire, slavery and Scotland’s museums group’s recommendations. We will all work towards the recommendations that are published by the steering group. We will support the building of an effective and resilient organisation that contains the necessary skills to identify and acquire additional funding streams to allow that crucial work to progress and develop in the coming years.

The location of any facility remains to be determined, but I hope that Stuart McMillan will take some comfort from our reassurances about the importance that we place on the empire museum.