Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you very much, cabinet secretary, and thank you for that detailed opening statement.

Since Covid, the culture sector has experienced a particularly hard time, as has been evidenced in our previous sessions. I think that “perfect storm” was the phrase that was used a couple of years ago. What we are hearing from people is that there is a lack of confidence, with in-year budget changes, the closure of the open fund and so on all impacting on that. What are your priorities in the budget to increase confidence in the sector?

Thank you. We will now move to questions from committee members.

We are not going to reach an agreement here—obviously—and it is not helpful if we get opinions thrown in with answers at this point. I will move on and bring in Mr Adam.

I thank Mr Brown for raising that issue, which is one that I was going to come on to.

In the Parliament at lunch time today, the Luminate choir will be performing on the theme of let’s sing dementia. That is a perfect example of community working, culture in the community and the wellbeing economy.

The other point about direct funding is the opportunity for economic involvement for a lot of community-based cultural activities. The embedding of culture in the wellbeing economy and cross-portfolio working are themes that come back time and again. I would say that we do not have much visibility of that work at the moment, cabinet secretary. Can you assure us that it is being done? You will have difficult budget conversations with colleagues, but this is another area where you could encourage them to look at things such as social prescribing.

Good morning and welcome to the 22nd meeting in 2024 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. We have only one agenda item this morning, which is evidence on funding for culture, as part of our pre-budget scrutiny. We are joined by the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Angus Robertson. He is accompanied by Shona Riach, who is director of external affairs and culture at the Scottish Government.

I invite the cabinet secretary to make an opening statement.

Cabinet secretary, thank you for your attendance this morning. On that note, I close the meeting.

Thank you cabinet secretary. Mr Harvie has a final question.

I was just coming to that. Are there rooms that you would like to be in that you are not in? Should you be speaking to health boards, local councils and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities? What are the barriers to embedding more of that work?

You have all mentioned the £100 million that was promised by 2028-29, with £25 million of that intended to be added into the culture budget for 2025-26.

What would your priorities be, and what would maximise the impact on the culture sector for that spend?

Welcome back. We now move to our second evidence session. We are joined by Iain Munro, who is the chief executive of Creative Scotland, and Alastair Evans, who is the director of strategy and planning at Creative Scotland. I wish a warm welcome to you both.

I will open with a question about the closure of the open fund for individuals. The cabinet secretary said:

“It is disappointing that Creative Scotland took the decision about the open fund before the Scottish Government could complete due diligence to release funding, as is normal practice.”—[Official Report, 3 September 2024; c 5.]

What were the circumstances around the decision to close the open fund, and what engagement did you have with the Government at that time?