Official Report 1092KB pdf
The next item of business is a statement by Angus Robertson on Creative Scotland multiyear funding. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of his statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions.
14:26
Thank you for the opportunity to address Parliament regarding Creative Scotland’s multiyear funding programme and today’s announcement of the successful applicants.
We spoke here on 14 January about the importance of the culture sector and why it is such a vital asset to Scotland, our society and our economy. I am always heartened by the strong consensus here about the centrality of culture to our prosperity as a nation.
Recent years have been turbulent for the sector. The effects of the pandemic, leaving the European Union and the cost of living crisis and the impact of United Kingdom Government financial austerity need not be rehearsed again now, but have put many cultural organisations in a perilous position. During that period, our role and that of our public bodies has been, as far as possible, to protect the sector against the worst of the challenges.
Today’s announcement has been keenly anticipated and definitively moves us beyond simply sustaining the sector, returning our focus to where it should be, on long-term development. The Scottish Government’s commitment to increase culture budgets by £100 million annually by 2028-29 sits firmly in that space and demonstrates our commitment to the sector’s future.
Multiyear funding is important because, by providing long-term certainty, it lays the foundations on which a diverse range of Scotland’s key cultural organisations can build. It will allow the organisations that have secured support to pursue their core work and to move on from a difficult period, while also supporting Scotland’s wider cultural ecosystem. Artists and venues will benefit from the work commissioned by funded organisations and through the use of their spaces by touring artists who will bring performances and exhibitions to communities across the country. The funding will also provide opportunities for people across Scotland to engage in culture, providing experiences that, for many, may be the first step towards a life-long and life-enriching interest or even towards the beginning of a career in the arts.
The way in which multiyear funding is being delivered will have a practical impact on the levels of support available to the sector. The increase in the number of organisations in receipt of core funding will free up Creative Scotland’s wider resources by reducing the number of organisations competing for those. Today’s announcement is the beginning of a new period in which the sector can look to the future.
Scotland’s culture sector is one of our most important assets. Our artists and cultural organisations are innovative and internationally respected, while being grounded in our local communities, and they have an authenticity that gives them their unique character. This funding package will provide stability and allow the sector to get back to what it does best—creating interesting, innovative and challenging output that enriches our lives.
I take this opportunity to formally thank Robert Wilson, Iain Munro and everyone at Creative Scotland who has been involved in the multiyear funding process. I also thank all the culture sector supporters who have played a role in delivering that transformational change.
In her statement on 4 December, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government outlined an increase of £34 million in the culture budget for 2025-26. The largest element of that increase is £20 million for multiyear funding. Subject to budgetary processes, we will increase the culture budget by a further £20 million in 2026-27. That additional funding will go in whole towards multiyear funding, taking the budget for the programme to £74 million and more than doubling it from current levels. That level of funding will allow Creative Scotland to make awards to all applicants that have met the criteria for the fund. It will mean that more organisations than ever before are supported with core funding.
I confirm that 251 organisations will receive funding from 2025-26. A number of applicants that narrowly missed out will join a development stream in which they will receive advice and financial support to adapt plans with the aim that they will receive multiyear funding from 2026-27. Creative Scotland currently supports 119 organisations with regular funding, so that represents a dramatic increase. It means that 95 per cent of organisations that reached stage 2 of the multiyear funding process will either receive grants or have the opportunity to do so from 2026-27.
Not only will the numbers of organisations that are supported increase, but so will the levels of grant. When we compare multiyear awards with grants to current regularly funded organisations, we see that average grant levels will increase by 33 per cent in year 1 of multiyear funding and by 54 per cent in year 2. The delivery of funding in that way will ensure that as many organisations as possible are supported in the coming year and that all funded organisations can see a path ahead of them to build their work and unleash their potential. Organisations across the whole of Scotland will be supported, across diverse art forms and with diverse impacts.
I hope that that addresses the concern, which I have heard, that resource would be spread too thinly. The approach represents a significant increase in both the number of funded organisations and the level of grants. It has the potential to be truly transformational, securing the future of cultural organisations of all sizes across the whole country.
For those organisations whose applications have not been successful, transition support will be available. That will be in the form of funding for organisations that previously received a significant level of funding from Creative Scotland. All organisations that have been unsuccessful at this stage of the process, whether they were previously funded or not, will be able to access transition advice. Those measures will support adaptation and business planning.
The foundations that the delivery of multiyear funding puts in place provide an opportunity to look to the wider needs of the sector. Through the funding that is proposed in the budget, we will increase support across a range of other programmes. A £4 million culture and heritage capacity fund will build resilience in museums and galleries. The festivals expo fund will be more than doubled in value and will expand its reach beyond Edinburgh and Glasgow. Screen Scotland’s production growth fund will receive an additional £2 million to attract investment in Scotland’s screen sector. The Culture Collective programme will restart with an increased budget of £4 million, providing opportunities for communities across Scotland. We will also undertake groundwork on the establishment of a cultural export and exchange service to enhance the role that international activity can play in the sector’s development.
Taken together, those measures create a comprehensive package of support that is focused on the diverse impacts that the culture sector has. Multiyear funding will allow us to look beyond the immediate and focus on new, innovative and transformational interventions.
It is important that, as part of that foundational shift, the infrastructure that supports the sector is considered. I am delighted that Dame Sue Bruce will lead an independent review of Creative Scotland’s remit and functions, which will aim to publish recommendations by the end of the summer this year. That will be part of a wider review of how the culture sector is supported as a whole. The scope of the work will be informed by responses to a public survey that closes tomorrow. Together, those pieces of work will ensure that the increased resources that we are committing to the sector will achieve the greatest possible impact.
I was pleased to note earlier this week that, following constructive engagement and discussion, Scottish Green Party and Scottish Liberal Democrat members will support the Government’s budget for 2025-26. By passing the proposed budget, we will lay the foundations for Scotland’s artists and cultural organisations to create, innovate, develop and engage locally and internationally. It will uphold the vital role of the sector in our society, communities and the economy.
I hope that this statement has provided members with assurance that Creative Scotland’s multiyear funding awards will begin a foundational shift in how Scotland’s culture sector is supported. The scale of awards, in both their number and their financial value, represents one of the most significant and positive developments in the sector for many, many years. Alongside a range of other interventions, they provide a basis for Scotland’s culture sector as a whole to look to the future with optimism and excitement about the opportunities that it will create.
The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in the statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for that, after which we will move on to the next item of business.
I thank the cabinet secretary for his statement and for advance sight of it.
The culture sector is vitally important to Scotland, not just as an enrichment of our national identity but because, by attracting visitors from around the world, its economic importance is worth billions to the Scottish economy. There has been a turbulent time in the culture sector in Scotland. That is down not just to the reasons that were mentioned in the cabinet secretary’s statement but to the choices that were made by his Government, with cuts in projects, uncertainty over future funding and questions about the credibility of Creative Scotland. Against that backdrop, the announcement of multiyear funding, which was long called for by the sector, will provide some certainty and security for arts organisations and is welcome.
Let me ask the cabinet secretary three questions in relation to his budget choices. First, we know that arts organisations across Scotland, including theatre companies, are struggling as a result of the increase in costs resulting from Labour’s jobs tax. To what extent will the increased funding that was announced today offset those increases?
Secondly, as the cabinet secretary knows, I have previously raised the issue of financial support for larger music venues. In Scotland, such venues are not getting the benefit of rates relief that is available south of the border, because the Scottish Government has chosen to spend the Barnett consequentials in a different way. Will the cabinet secretary reconsider that position of the Government, even at this late hour?
Thirdly, as we know, a huge proportion of the arts scene, including theatres and other venues, are supported by local authorities. Those local arts facilities are telling us that they face funding cuts and, in some cases, even closure, due to the very difficult position that local authorities are in. Will the extra funding ensure that we will not see closures in local arts facilities that are funded through local authorities? Will the cabinet secretary reassure them that none of them face closure?
First, I take the opportunity to welcome Murdo Fraser’s welcome. It took a while, but he got there, so I congratulate him. I genuinely do not want to be churlish, because I hope that colleagues across the chamber understand that what has been announced by Creative Scotland, funded through the Scottish Government, is absolutely transformational for the arts. I know that because the feedback from people elsewhere in the United Kingdom who do not have multiyear funding is a testament to how significant a change that is. It is very welcome, and I genuinely appreciate the support of colleagues in other parties.
Murdo Fraser asked three questions. On offsetting the UK Labour Government’s jobs tax, I would observe that the applications for funding to the multiyear funding process took place before the announcement of the additional costs foisted on arts organisations by the Labour chancellor. Mr Fraser asked me to give an impression of what impact that might have. I will have to get back to him on that. However, we already know from conversations with cultural organisations that the impact is problematic. We have asked the UK Government to reimburse the Scottish Government so that we can deal with those things. We know that we are not getting all the money, so it is a problem.
Murdo Fraser’s second question was about larger music venues. I have said that I am keen to support venues as much as we possibly can. This is not the first time that I have asked Murdo Fraser to show me his workings on the issue—I am sure that he has just forgotten it, or it is in the post. I ask him to please let me know how he would wish us to do that in the budget, and what we would have to cut to make that happen. I look forward to getting the details from him.
The point on local authorities is slightly different. I am sure that the Presiding Officer would wish to remind me that the statement is in relation to the announcements of Creative Scotland’s multiyear funding. Yes, there is an impact in some places, because the use of local facilities by funded organisations and so on is a longer conversation, which I am happy to continue having with Murdo Fraser. As I think that I said to him in portfolio questions yesterday, I met the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities this week to work out how we can better co-ordinate and support one another in working between the Scottish Government and local authorities, and I am committed to doing that. We want to maintain as much of our cultural infrastructure as possible.
This is my final thought for Murdo Fraser and his colleagues: if they are so keen on all those changes, I invite them to vote for them in the budget.
I remind everybody that we have limited time for the statement. I am keen to get in as many members as possible, so that they, too, have a chance to ask their questions.
Scottish Labour welcomes the increase in funding for the culture sector, which, of course, has been helped by the new United Kingdom Labour Government’s record budget settlement for Scotland. We have consistently called on the Scottish Government to keep its commitments to the sector and to end the constant cycle of promises followed by cuts under the Scottish National Party, which has left the sector in crisis for far too long.
After lengthy delays, we are now finally seeing a step in the right direction, but claims that it will be truly transformational are questionable, given the effects of years of standstill funding and inflationary pressures. The cabinet secretary said that a number of organisations narrowly missed out. How many organisations missed out, and what does transition support for them mean in practice?
The cabinet secretary also stated the average uplift in grants. Will he tell us what the range of those uplifts is, how many organisations received what they asked for in full and what other support will be provided, or is being considered by the Government, to organisations that are not in receipt of Government funding or those that have not been funded in full?
First, I take the opportunity to welcome Neil Bibby’s welcome, which came straight out of the trap, and I thank him for that. We all have a stake in the issue. When we make speeches committing to the culture sector, it contributes to a more general understanding of how important culture and the arts are. The Opposition and the Government play a role in that, so I commend him for his support in that endeavour.
He says that the increase in funding is a step in the right direction, which it is. It is a massive step in the right direction, and I know that arts organisations in the rest of the UK, among others, would wish the Labour UK Government to introduce what we are doing in Scotland.
Neil Bibby asks me a number of technical questions about Creative Scotland’s decisions, but I am here to announce in general terms the Government’s reaction to the decisions made by Creative Scotland. I will make sure that Creative Scotland directly answers those technical questions, in the same way that similar questions are answered by the likes of Historic Environment Scotland. I look forward to seeing those answers from Creative Scotland, which is an arm’s-length organisation.
I wish to assure Neil Bibby that this is much more than a step in the right direction. He pointed out the issue of organisations not receiving support or receiving transitional support. I am satisfied that that will put applicants as a whole to work in the right direction on a firmer financial footing, but I will make sure that Creative Scotland answers directly to him.
Thank you, cabinet secretary. I reiterate that we have limited time. I am keen to get everybody who wishes to pose a question to do so, but that now looks less likely, I have to say. Succinct questions and answers are always helpful.
The delivery of multiyear funding is a significant development. It was called for by stakeholders who gave evidence to the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee and it has been welcomed widely by the sector. Creative Scotland’s plan will see the largest ever number of cultural organisations securing regular funding. I am delighted that Reeltime Music, which is in my constituency, is one of the 13 development organisations that will benefit from the £3.2 million development fund.
Will the cabinet secretary outline the Scottish Government’s engagement with Creative Scotland regarding the number and range of organisations that may benefit from the grants?
I assure Clare Adamson that I and my officials have had regular meetings with Creative Scotland. The process has been run by Creative Scotland, which is an arms-length organisation. As the sponsoring organisation that funds Creative Scotland, we have the responsibility to satisfy ourselves about the process, and I am satisfied. I encourage members and people who are watching the proceedings that, if they want to have a better understanding of the results, they should visit the Creative Scotland website and download the list of all the successful applicants. At this stage, I congratulate every one of them.
It is commendable and to be welcomed that Creative Scotland has been awarded the multiyear funding, which will provide more stability for future planning for the arts and creative sector. However, what safeguards have been put in place to ensure that funding is correctly allocated going forward, and that is it is never again distributed to inappropriate projects such as the infamous Rein project?
I welcome the fact that the development is commendable. The member sits on the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, which has heard evidence from Creative Scotland about the safeguards that it has introduced. As a member of the committee, the member also has the opportunity to ask Creative Scotland directly about that, which I am sure that he will do, and that he will satisfy himself, as I have, that the likes of the project that he referenced will not be repeated in future.
I welcome the support of the Scottish Greens and the Liberal Democrats for the Scottish Government’s draft budget. Given that it appears that the Tories will vote against the budget and that Labour will abstain, can the cabinet secretary outline the consequences for the culture sector should multiyear funding not be supported?
If the budget is not passed, multiyear funding will not happen. It is not a theoretical question, which is why, even at this stage, I appeal for those who say they support culture but will vote against the budget, or those members who say that they support culture but are going to abstain on the question, to reconsider. I think that the support for culture is reason enough to support the budget, which will bring transitional change for the culture sector.
I welcome the funding for culture organisations that has been made possible by the UK Labour Government’s record budget settlement. I particularly welcome the funding of Edinburgh’s festivals, which attract millions of people to Scotland each year.
The culture sector should not be fighting for its survival. Festivals have struggled with standstill Government funding for years, which has stunted their growth. How is the Scottish Government supporting organisations to attract private or other sources of funding? How will the cabinet secretary ensure that the delays to multiyear funding, which caused so much uncertainty in the sector, will not be repeated?
I take the opportunity to welcome the member’s welcome of the funding. He is absolutely right about the importance of the funding to the Edinburgh international festival. I declare an interest, as I am the member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Central, which is home to the Edinburgh international festival, as well as the Edinburgh art festival, the Edinburgh international book festival and the Edinburgh jazz and blues festival—and I could go on.
Many organisations that are based in Scotland’s capital, and across the country, have been successful as part of the process, which is a good thing. On the wider point about funding that could be raised through philanthropy, there is an on-going process that I would be happy to speak to Foysol Choudhury about.
I end on a point that I have made a number of times, which is that we cannot just wish the means; we have to make decisions to support things to happen. Even at this late stage, Foysol Choudhury might want to vote for the budget, rather than just saying that he supports culture.
The funding boost to Aberdeen Performing Arts, Citymoves Dance Agency and peacock & the worm, among others, will not only sustain existing institutions but support new voices and emerging talent from Aberdeen. I am particularly pleased to see new funding being allocated to the much-loved Belmont Community Cinema. Will the cabinet secretary assure the Parliament that cultural funding will continue to benefit all of Scotland? Will he join me in celebrating the cultural offering that Aberdeen and the north-east gifts to our nation?
Organisations across the whole of Scotland will benefit from the awards. Thirty-five per cent of all organisations that have been awarded funding work nationally, no matter where their base is. I assure Kevin Stewart that organisations that are based in Aberdeen and north-east Scotland will receive support. In Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, 13 organisations—including six that have not received core funding from Creative Scotland previously—have been successful. That includes Belmont Community Cinema, which pleases me particularly.
In recent weeks, the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee has highlighted how it is all too easy for some production companies to bring crews to Scotland to film projects and then just return to London. Will the cabinet secretary outline how the funding to Screen Scotland will help to strengthen and diversify the range of screen professionals and careers in Scotland?
In the budget, significant additional resources are allocated for Screen Scotland, and the production growth fund will help it to attract and develop more screen projects that are from Scotland or are intended to take place in Scotland.
I share the member’s concerns about the full value of productions in Scotland not being received in Scotland, as has recently been highlighted. I remain seized of that issue and have discussed it with the BBC, and I am in on-going dialogue with Ofcom to make sure that those concerns can be assuaged, because it is in everybody’s interests for the screen sector to go from strength to strength. Its gross value added is currently valued at £635 million per annum. We all hope that it can become a billion-pound industry by 2030. We all have a stake in that.
With Scottish Liberal Democrat backing, the budget will deliver tens of millions more for dance, music, theatre, literature, screen and more. After the past few years of uncertainty, with people being messed around by the Government, that extra funding will go a long way.
I congratulate those who have been successfully awarded grants. It is a huge amount of work to apply for any such funds, which involves a burden of tens and tens of pages of application forms that often falls on tiny companies. It must take ages for the people who are sifting and analysing applications to go through them. Will the on-going review of Creative Scotland examine how that can be streamlined? The more time Creative Scotland spends on admin, the less time it has to spend doing good in our communities.
First, I commend Alex Cole-Hamilton for supporting the budget, which is able to deliver progress for the cultural sector. It is good to be working collectively on that.
Alex Cole-Hamilton highlights one of the great advantages of multiyear funding. Of course we have to ensure that funds are properly applied for—there are processes and there is no way round that. However, doing applications on a multiyear basis means that one does not have to do them every year, because one receives funding two to three years down the road, which reduces the burden. Should the review look at that? Yes, absolutely, and there is no doubt that it will, but multiyear funding will change things significantly and its introduction is a game changer for Scotland. I know that the culture sector elsewhere in the UK is keen to follow suit with that.
My Rutherglen constituency is home to many talented musicians, actors and other creative sector professionals. Will the cabinet secretary outline what organisations in the South Lanarkshire Council area will benefit from the very welcome announcement of multiyear funding?
In South Lanarkshire, the Scottish Music Industry Association and Soundplay Projects have been successful in securing funding, and I congratulate them. Soundplay Projects has not previously received core funding from Creative Scotland. More than a third of all successful applicants, including those organisations, operate nationally, which benefits South Lanarkshire and the whole country.
The cabinet secretary will know that we in the Conservatives are greatly exercised about value for taxpayers’ money and the measurement of outcomes. Will he expand on how this public expenditure fits with the national performance framework? How can we have assurance that the money is being spent appropriately and transparently by the organisations that are receiving the multiyear funding settlements?
I repeat the point that I made about the screen sector. We are able to evidence the growth in that sector and show that relatively small interventions of public funding help to lever in private sector support, which I know that the member is in favour of, as am I.
I am confident that this injection of support into the arts and culture sector will have a significant and positive impact. I assure Mr Kerr that I am confident that there will be knock-on benefits for the wider economy. We will monitor that, as will Creative Scotland, and I have no doubt that—as someone who has described himself as being greatly exercised about the matter—Mr Kerr will, too.
I have worked with the organisers of many festivals in Galloway, such as the Big Burns Supper, Stranraer oyster festival, Kirkcudbright festival of light and Wigtown book festival. One thing that they raise is the need for festivals in rural areas to receive the same recognition and funding as those in the central belt do. The cabinet secretary mentioned the festivals expo fund. Will he describe further that fund and how it will support festivals beyond Edinburgh and Glasgow, including in Galloway and the Borders?
First, I am delighted that a number of organisations in Dumfries and Galloway will receive awards, including four that have not previously received core funding from Creative Scotland.
Emma Harper is absolutely correct to suggest that we should recognise the impact of festivals beyond the central belt, which is why, separately from multiyear funding, we are more than doubling support for the festivals expo fund and expanding its reach beyond Edinburgh and Glasgow. That is an example of how the strategic partnership for Scotland’s festivals will provide further opportunities to explore how best to support festivals in rural areas.
I can squeeze in a question from Mr Smyth if he is brief.
Given that we have lost a lot of festivals in Dumfries and Galloway and that there is a clear inequality when it comes to funding such festivals, will the cabinet secretary guarantee that today’s announcement will tackle that regional inequality of support for festivals, particularly in Dumfries and Galloway?
I will make sure that Mr Smyth receives the link to the funding announcement, so that he can satisfy himself that there is a significant improvement throughout the country.
Mr Smyth draws attention to the work of the strategic partnership for festivals and festival support, which I am personally chairing. I am so invested in that because I want to make sure that festivals across the country go from strength to strength. I am happy to work with him and other colleagues to make sure that that happens.
That concludes the ministerial statement on Creative Scotland multiyear funding. Before we move to the next item of business, there will be a short pause to allow front-bench teams to switch over. I ask members who are leaving the chamber to do so without having lots of discussions with other members.
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