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Okay—fine.

I do not think that there is a single, silver bullet through any of the different organisations or funding streams to help the Scottish culture and arts sector to thrive in a way that we all agree on.

Having said that, I think it is right that we consider all potential options for supporting the culture and arts sector. We have to acknowledge that other countries are further ahead of us in some respects. The visitor levy is a good example of that. The overwhelming majority of countries across the European Union have a levy, and I am not aware of any evidence that suggests that it has a detriment on tourism spend. Indeed, it has the benefit of bringing in additional funding to municipalities and regions.

Similarly, the percentage for the arts scheme has the potential to provide additional funding, and there are other suggestions that we have discussed in the committee and in the chamber. For example, Mark Ruskell regularly brings up the issue of a tax on tickets as another potential route to gain additional funding. I have thought for quite a while that, in addition to what local and national Government do, we also have an opportunity to work much more closely with people, or the trusts and foundations that they may be involved in, who give money to the sector. I think that we can work much better together with the philanthropic sector domestically and internationally. I look forward to exploring all those things.

As to your point, convener, none of those things provide the single answer to the concerns about the funding situation that the sector has been going through, which we know well, but they could all play a part in the answer to helping it to be as well funded as I hope we all agree that it should be.

I acknowledge the importance of those funds for Creative Scotland as it goes through the significant funding change to multiyear funding. The Scottish Government is providing public funding to make up for a reduction in national lottery support that was intended to be provided for only three years and has now been extended. Notwithstanding that, I appreciate how important those funds are for Creative Scotland as part of its transitional planning, and to the regularly funded organisations that will form part of the multiyear framework. Those funds are also important for the financial means to support wider parts of the creative and arts sector that will not form part of that multiyear funding approach.

Creative Scotland is right to want to ensure that the transition works well and that there is no cliff edge for the organisations, venues and other projects that it supports. That is why I have been persuaded of the importance of the funding, given that the priorities that I have set out from the Scottish Government’s point of view align with those of Creative Scotland, as a way of ensuring that we make that change.

The previous time that I gave evidence, I drew attention to the fact that the third sector in particular in Scotland has been crying out for that multiyear approach in order to give financial certainty and to reduce the amount of time that is currently spent applying for funding on an annual basis. Creative Scotland is absolutely at the vanguard of that change, which is why the issue of the £6.6 million from the previous financial year came up. We gave a commitment—I gave a commitment at a meeting of this committee—that we would restore that funding. I am delighted to confirm that we are doing what I undertook we would do and that there will be an additional year’s funding of £6.6 million.

It is worth noting that that is significantly more than the national lottery funding shortfall, but notwithstanding that, I accept, agree and value the importance of that funding as part of the transition. To my mind, it falls very much within the phase of sustaining the current arts and culture infrastructure.

As we begin to have more finance in the culture and arts sector, which we have secured because of commitments that were made by the First Minister, agreed by the Deputy First Minister and supported by me for quite a long time, we can then look to the medium term in respect of some of the ambitions that Mr Ruskell has outlined.

However, there is a footnote to that, which I never hesitate to make and that is quite important: Creative Scotland is—quite rightly—an arm’s-length agency, and, as such, it is an organisation with which we agree a general direction of travel. I have outlined our perspective on that, but it is for Creative Scotland to make decisions about all that when it comes to individual projects.

I am pleased, as I know that Creative Scotland is, that there is more money for culture in Scotland this year, which is not the case in other nations in the United Kingdom, and that our financial commitment is significant and will continue to grow cumulatively over the next years.

It is always a pleasure to be back at the committee, convener, and thank you for the opportunity to make some opening remarks. First, I would like to thank all the organisations that have given evidence to the committee. I have read and listened to their evidence with great interest. The evidence is clear that, although the budget and our announcement to increase culture funding by £100 million annually by 2028-29 are welcome, there remains a need for longer-term clarity and confidence. I would like to take the opportunity of my opening remarks to provide that.

I recognise that the additional £15.8 million of funding next year will not rectify years of standstill funding. That is only the starting point of a journey of three phases—sustain, develop and innovate—all of which are important aspects that I have heard referenced by the sector in its evidence.

The £15.8 million in the next financial year begins the sustain phase. This is intended to be followed by a further £25 million the year after, with culture budgets £40.8 million higher in 2025-26 than now.

The budget will increase cumulatively until it is £100 million per annum higher by 2028-29. That additional resource allows us to move beyond simply sustaining the sector to developing it in innovative ways to support Scotland’s creative sector and its contribution to our own wellbeing economy and international reputation.

In line with that, I have recently confirmed to Creative Scotland that we will not direct the use of the additional £6.6 million that will be provided to it in 2024-25, although I expect the organisation to use that money to help the sector to recover, to be sustainable and to innovate.

I fully support Creative Scotland’s move towards multiyear funding. As the committee heard last week, that is a critical issue for a lot of, if not most, cultural organisations. I hope that the announcement of the intention to provide an additional £25 million across the culture and arts sector in the next financial year will provide some certainty, and I will continue to argue the case for multiyear funding.

Our refreshed action plan supports delivery of the culture strategy and was published alongside the budget last December. The action plan, which was prepared in close engagement with the sector, including the national partnership for culture, has the ambition to support the sector to move beyond its recovery phase.

As we implement those plans to sustain the sector, we are also defining the work on the development of the culture and arts sector to provide confidence for the future. Scottish Government senior officials and I will be meeting organisations and third sector partners to discuss that.

We will consider all aspects of the sector so that we can support: freelancers, and to attract and retain their talent; community cultural projects in all authorities across Scotland; the national performing companies, so that they can engage and tour with confidence across the country and around the world; festivals, so that they can continue to be world class and contribute to our economy and international reputation; national collections, so that they can innovate and enhance their collections and public experience; the screen sector and its remarkable growth in Scotland, and the opportunities that that brings; the building of resilience and financial stability across the sector; the mainstreaming of culture across Government; and support making progress on participation, with the benefits across public services of health and wellbeing that that brings.

As part of securing the future of the sector, we will explore new funding streams in addition to Scottish Government funding. I am keen to progress consideration of the Scottish National Party’s manifesto commitment to the percentage for the arts scheme and to draw inspiration from international best practice, such as Denmark’s foundation model.

I am aware of the Music Venue Trust’s campaign for a stadium tax to support grass-roots music venues. My colleague the Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, Christina McKelvie, has encouraged the Music Venue Trust to ask the cross-party group on music to convene an industry round-table discussion on the issue. I look forward to the outcome of that discussion.

I am keen to develop links with key philanthropists in Scotland and globally. I want Government networks internationally to support the export of Scottish culture and the sector’s resilience. Our international culture strategy—which will be published soon—will support that ambition.

As Neil Bibby MSP mentioned last week, the Scottish Government is only part of the public sector funding picture. Many organisations receive money from local authorities. The Scottish Government will work with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to ensure that all local authorities understand the important role that culture plays. I look forward to working with partners in COSLA and with individual local authorities on that.

We are at a key turning point in relation to the funding for culture and the arts in Scotland. I acknowledge that I am in a privileged position, because we are restoring our culture budget at a time when other administrations are reducing theirs. I have great ambitions for how the sector should grow and thrive. I want to have more opportunities for people across Scotland to experience the empowering potential of culture, including through our community-based programmes such as the Culture Collective network. I am very focused on delivering those ambitions, which our additional funding allows for.

I want to work with the committee to develop the suggestions that it has to contribute to that exciting opportunity. I invite committee members and cultural organisations to come to me and my officials with ideas and suggestions about how we can fund the sector.

I agree entirely. To take only one example of that, if one needed any evidence for it—we are getting increasing amounts of evidence about the economic impact of the culture sector—one could look at the now-defined benefits of the film and television sector in Scotland. A few years ago, we had little screen sector footprint beyond the BBC, Scottish Television and Channel 4. We have gone to a situation in which the annual gross value added to the economy is now at around £650 million—if the trajectory continues, it will be worth £1 billion by 2030—and the sector provides more than 10,000 jobs. Incidental benefit is also felt. MG Alba was brought up, and we have a screen and broadcasting footprint in the Western Isles and Inverness, especially in the Gaelic language.

That is but one example of the economic impact that culture has. You have had persuasive evidence from the likes of the festivals in Edinburgh. I speak wearing two hats, of course: being the member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Central, the impact of the festivals is obvious to me. If one looks at the economic role that the festivals play—the artistic and cultural contribution is obvious to all—one sees that their economic value added is massive. Yes, that is about the Edinburgh festivals, but on this of all days, when Celtic Connections is starting in Glasgow, and with festivals furth of the cities as well, we need to have a better understanding of the economic impact of festivals.

We have had some tremendous interventions over recent years that have supported festivals—for example, through the expo and place funds. However, if we look at how festivals are supported in other countries, we can see that it is right and proper that we examine how we support them domestically. That is why I go back to the point that now is the right time for us to look at all of that and how it all fits together. Are we missing anything in our approach? Is there more that we should do? I am open to considering that and working with our culture and arts sector partners on it.

On the specific issue of harder-to-reach geographies and communities—I appreciate that, coming from a Gaelic speaker, that is also a linguistic question—we have done great things in recent years, but undoubtedly there is more that we can do. An organisation that I have mentioned before in evidence is the Culture Collective, which has been able to deliver in slightly more than two thirds of Scotland’s local authorities. I really want us to be able to support its reach right across the whole of the country, given what the organisation is able to do, especially in supporting freelancers, who are in one of the most tenuous positions in relation to income and reliable employment in the culture and arts sector. Supporting funding streams and projects that have already been tried and tested there is, for me, a priority.

I would want to know where we currently do not have that footprint. MSP colleagues regularly raise in Parliament the question of why there is provision in one place and not more in another. We have to test everything that we do to make sure that we are answering all of those questions, and, if there is unmet need and demand, we should be doing everything that we can to make sure that, given the new approach, we are thinking about things from those perspectives as well.

We need to be fully aware that the support of culture is not just the responsibility of the Scottish Government and Scottish Government agencies. Working in partnership with local government colleagues will be key in moving forward on that. Yes, it is about venues and yes, it is about projects. One could point to the likes of Sistema as an example. We are keen to see access to culture through tremendous projects such as Sistema.

Local authorities take a risk when they no longer continue to fund organisations, venues or facilities, and that is something that I want to talk about with local authority partners. My colleague Christina McKelvie has already held discussions with culture leads and I will meet the president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities next week when we are both in Brussels—these are the kinds of things that we will talk about.

It is only by working in partnership that we will be able to get ourselves through the sustain phase and into the better funding scenario that we are moving towards. It is only by taking a partnership approach that we will see the success that we want to see right across the country. I have not met a single person in local government who does not want there to be excellent cultural provision in their local government area. That relationship will be key.

I am sure that my colleagues with finance responsibilities would point to the funding and support that has been given to local government so that decisions can be made at a local level while we have responsibility for the things that we support at a national level. However, it is only by working together that we will be able to get through this phase and into the next, and I look forward to doing that with COSLA and colleagues at individual councils.

I am delighted by Mr Stewart’s welcome for the additional funding, because we all have a role to play in helping to give the sector confidence about where we are going and how we are going to get there. The challenge of making that happen as expeditiously as possible, so that it is in alignment with strategies, plans and ambitions, is absolutely at the heart of where my thinking is. There is no doubt that I will be back before the committee and I will be asked repeatedly about all that.

There is always a question about matching strategies and plans with the ability to deliver on that trajectory. One would have to have had one’s head in the sand to not understand that devolved Government is, this year, in the most distressed financial situation since the beginning of devolution. This is not a uniquely Scottish situation. My Welsh colleague or my Northern Irish colleague, were there one in place at the present time, would say exactly the same thing. Short of opening up a discussion about UK funding and the ability of the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Irish Executive to deal with spending constraints—which is not the role of this morning’s meeting—we have to deal with the constraints that we have.

Although, as I have said a number of times, I totally understand people saying that they need at once the funding that has been committed to, all fair-minded people who realise that we are one of the limited areas of Government that has been able to secure additional funding will appreciate that the down payment has been made on that additional funding, and that I will be working night and day to make sure that we maximise the committed funding as quickly as we possibly can. We want to deliver on these strategies and plans, and on the ambition that we all have to have a thriving culture sector.

Mr Stewart, like Mr Bibby earlier, is absolutely right to say that it is only by partnership working with local government, the agencies that are involved and other partners that we can ensure that there is no misalignment. I am confident that we can do that. There is enormous goodwill out there. There is a very good working relationship between Government, its agencies and the sector. There are regular round-table discussions and meetings. We are very well informed about what people’s needs, interests, concerns and expectations are.

We also work very hard to ensure that we understand where there is financial distress and to work out where we could and should intervene to ensure that we are sustaining the culture and arts footprint in Scotland. We are also moving on to the next stage of how we can help people to succeed.

I am grateful for the welcome. I agree that we want to make sure that we have the funding to match the ambition. There have been very public commitments made by the First Minister, the Deputy First Minister, the finance minister and me. I gave commitments to the committee and I have fulfilled them for the forthcoming financial year in relation to Creative Scotland—doubt was cast on that happening. I am delighted that we are delivering exactly on the commitments that we gave. In exactly the same way, we will deliver on the commitments that we have made to the uplift in culture spending.

I want to go beyond that. Forgive me if I have already told this vignette, but I met last summer with the Danish culture minister—my opposite number—and we talked about the funding of culture in Denmark. He talked about the significant amount of funding that is allocated by Government. He then went on to talk about the amount of money that was disbursed across the arts and culture sector through foundations. In Denmark, the law says that companies of a certain size have to have a foundation, and they have a requirement to support, among other things, culture and the arts. Large Danish companies, such as Carlsberg or Maersk, have foundations that support culture and the arts. The amount of money that they are able to inject in addition to Government resources is eye-watering. That is why I mentioned in my opening statement that we need to look at other countries and places that have well-established ways of making sure that one is fulfilling strategy, plans, ambitions and all the rest of it, as quickly as we can.

I have said before and I will say again that people should please share any ideas that they have with the committee, me, officials, Creative Scotland and others. There is an open door; we are in this together. It is the country’s culture and arts sector. Government does not do culture, but it has the ability to help, support, convene and finance it. We will do as much as we can, but there is co-ownership in making sure that, together with the sector, we are in the place that we want to be.

No. One of the things that I am optimistic and upbeat about is that, given where we have come from—the committee has taken a considerable amount of evidence on that from across the culture sector, which has illustrated the challenges that there have been because of Covid, Covid recovery, the wider economic situation and, yes, past flat budget settlements, in some cases—there is a sense that we need to reimagine how we should approach our support, which is something we agree, across the parties, that we need to do.

That is why I am very keen that we take this opportunity not simply to ask how we are going to use the additional money that is coming and whether we are simply going to apply more resource to support organisations as we have done up until now, but to ask whether we can think in new ways about getting additional resources and whether there are additional ways in which we can support projects that it has not yet been possible to fund.

Forgive me, convener, and tell me to stop if I have made this point to the committee before—I am not sure whether I have. We have organisations—Creative Scotland is at the front of the queue—that have a very talented workforce that assesses projects, organisations and venues for funding. Because of the funding envelope, in certain years, Creative Scotland will be able to fund some but not all those organisations. That is not because there are unworthy of support or venues are unworthy of investment; it is because one has to operate within a funding envelope.

However, in effect, that means that a due diligence process has been gone through that says, “Yes, these are really, really good projects; they just don’t work financially this year.” Therefore, if additional funding can be brought in from elsewhere, why should we not take another look at how the culture infrastructure in Scotland can be supported in areas where there are city deals, at whether the money has been drawn down, at whether there are projects that might fall into the ambit of those deals that have not done so yet, at whether we can support that and at whether we should do more? I am absolutely keen for us to take a look at that—and I am delighted that Penelope Cooper is taking notes. We want to be as imaginative as possible.

I have said this in the chamber and I will say it again, because the outside world, and particularly the sector, is looking: I want to work with people across the committee and across the Parliament, because there is no monopoly of good ideas or common sense.

Regarding suggestions of where additional funding might come from, we have spoken at the committee in the past about the percentage for the arts scheme, the visitor levy and philanthropy. City deals also fall into that basket from which additional support might be available. We must not allow projects to fall by the wayside from one year to the next. We have organisations that do the due diligence and the work on the culture and arts side, as well as in the heritage sector. As committee members know well, we are trying to protect our built and natural heritage, of which we have a lot in Scotland. We are trying to repair and restore many buildings, and there are people who want to support that effort. There are funding streams that can potentially do that, too.

We have an opportunity to think anew. I do not think that we can just carry on as before, so it behoves us all—the Government, Creative Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland and Screen Scotland—to think about how we are doing what we are doing. We should be thinking about what we should be doing more of and what we might do less of or do differently, and now is absolutely the right time for all of us to be thinking in those terms.

First off, Edinburgh has a deserved reputation as the festivals capital of the world, and not just because of the decades of festivals that we have had in Scotland’s capital city since 1947. We have seen a growth in the festivals from what was originally just the Edinburgh international festival to the festival fringe and then a further raft of amazing book festivals, children’s festivals and film festivals—I could go on—and I think that it is absolutely right to match the challenge of the question whether we support and fund world-class festivals with the same ambition as those who run them.

That is why I said in my opening statement that one of my key priorities relates to festivals. The question is: are we doing everything we can for them—and here I am quoting myself—to “continue to be world class and contribute to our economy and international reputation”? Is there more that can be done? Absolutely. Mr Cameron will understand that, in relation to the point that has been made by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, the fact is that it did not secure regularly funded organisation status from Creative Scotland some time ago. Without wanting to labour the point too much, I have to say that I have always been very cautious about getting involved in individual Creative Scotland funding decisions. However, given that I am signalling that I want us to be thinking about all of these things as we move forward, we have to match our ambitions as a Government, as political parties and as parliamentarians with those of the organisations themselves.

After all, what has changed in recent decades is not just the festivals here, but festivals elsewhere. Edinburgh garnered its international reputation in significant part because it was among the first to have such festivals, but there are other cities in other countries that have tremendous festivals, too. That is a good thing, but we need to do everything we can not to rest on the laurels of seven decades of heritage and history and ensure that we are able to support our festivals. Indeed, I am talking not just about our Edinburgh festivals; as I have pointed out, we have tremendous festivals in our other great cities as well as the rest of the country, and we must ensure that they are properly funded and supported in a number of other ways.

There are other ways in which Government can support these things. I have said to the committee before that I am very keen for our international network—whether it be Scottish Government offices or, wider than that, our Scottish Development International or VisitScotland presence or GlobalScot network—to play a much more active role in promoting our culture sector internationally. That will benefit the festivals, too.

It is in addition to the £15 million-plus in this budget. It is cumulative. What we are saying is that, every year, the funding will be in addition to the money that was committed in the previous year. The figure, therefore, will be £40 million-plus.