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The Scottish Government does not currently hold information on how much Health Boards have spent on NHS operations and procedures undertaken in the private healthcare sector during the COVID-19 outbreak. Costs will be available at the end of each quarter according to the activity undertaken.

During the COVID19 pandemic our strategy for utilising the private sector capacity in Scotland is to support NHS activity by providing a COVID free environment for urgent procedures to be undertaken, specifically urgent cancer surgery.

As of the 24 May 2020, there has been 1542 outpatient appointments and 1132 surgical procedures delivered have been undertaken in a private sector facility. This additionally has supported 9 NHS Health Boards.

The Golden Jubilee National Hospital is also supporting territorial Health Boards around more complex cancer surgery.

Scottish Government officials met a number of outdoor learning stakeholders on 29 May including: Girlguiding Scotland; The Boys’ Brigade; Scouts Scotland; the Outward Bound Trust; Scottish Outdoor Education Centres and the Association of Heads of Outdoor Education Centres, all of which are involved in the running of outdoor residential centres.

Discussions focused on the support that can be provided to the outdoor learning sector at this time. This included keeping the sector informed of education recovery work in an effort to ensure providers can adapt their offer appropriately and ultimately support the re-opening of schools and other education establishments.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-28933 on 2 June 2020. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government has made a number of grant schemes available specifically for the cultural sector as a result of COVID-19, and in addition cultural businesses are able to apply to a range of other COVID-19 business support schemes. These funds are supported via a mixture of additional budget allocations to the sector and through repurposing of existing funding streams.

Specific cultural support:

Creative Scotland is providing the following support in response to the COVID-19 situation.

The Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund for freelance creative professionals (£4.0m); As of Monday 25 May, 1596 arts and creative bursaries have been paid.

The repurposed Open Project fund to help practitioners adapt and respond to the current changing circumstances (£7.5m). As at 25 May, there have been 176 individual applications and 86 applications from organisations to the Open Fund. These will be assessed at the end of May.

One-off bursaries through Screen Scotland to film and TV sector workers (£1.5m). 519 have been paid as at 25 May.

Screen Scotland has also announced that Scotland’s independent film and TV production companies are able to apply for newly ring-fenced development support fund of £1m for awards over the next 3-6 months to enable planning towards production when Government guidance allows.

Museums Galleries Scotland have formed the Urgent Response Fund (£700k) and the Digital Resilience Fund (£115k). As of 25 May 2020, 24 applications have been received for the Urgent Response Fund, with 20 assessed. Nine museums have been awarded funding, nine decisions have been deferred, two declined and four to be assessed. The Digital Resilience fund has received 46 applications, with 42 assessments and 40 awards having been made.

We are supporting the Edinburgh Fringe with a £500,000 initial package of support comprising a £400,000 interest-free loan from the Scottish Government and a £100,000 grant from the Council.

Wider funds which cultural organisations may be eligible to apply for include the £30 million Creative, Tourism & Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund, the £34 million Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund, the Third Sector Resilience Fund and the £120 million Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund.

The Job Retention Scheme, which includes the furlough measure, and the Self Employment Income Support Scheme are both reserved to the UK Government under employment law.

There are a number of reasons why people may not be eligible for these schemes. Data on the uptake of the schemes, by different sectors including the creative industries, is a matter for the UK Government.

The Scottish Government is aware that the support packages available may not help with every individual circumstance. That is why we established the £30m Creative, Tourism & Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund, the £120m Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund and the £34m Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund.

Creative Scotland is also providing an expected total budget of £14 million of support through the Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund for freelance creative professionals; the repurposed Open Project fund to help practitioners adapt and respond to the current changing circumstances; and one-off bursaries to film and TV sector workers.

Information on all of the support schemes, including the general schemes, is available through the Find Business Support website at https://findbusinesssupport.gov.scot/ .

Public funding for the heritage sector is primarily distributed through Historic Environment Scotland’s (HES) grant programmes. Since 2015, the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has been awarded two three-year Annual Maintenance Grants to support the conservation and repair of properties within its estate. The grant funding made available is set out in the following table alongside details of the amounts claimed by the NTS.

Scottish Ministers recognise the exceptional circumstances being experienced by the arts, culture and tourism sectors as a result of COVID-19, and the challenges these have created. We have significant and ongoing engagement with key stakeholders from these sectors including through the Scottish Tourism Emergency Response Group and Creative Scotland’s Covid-19 response group which has been key in identifying and addressing many of the challenges for businesses, employees and the self-employed.

We have put in place a substantial package worth over £2.3 billion for businesses in Scotland, which includes the Creative, Tourism and Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund, and the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund. Creative Scotland is providing an expected total budget of £14 million of support in response to the COVID-19 situation including the Bridging Bursary Fund for freelance creative professionals; the repurposed Open Project fund to help practitioners adapt and respond to the current changing circumstances; and one-off bursaries to film and TV sector workers.

Official data on the financial impact of COVID-19 on the arts, culture and tourism sectors are not yet available for Scotland.

In response to COVID-19, the Scottish Government has published an experimental Monthly Business Turnover Index. These provide an early indicator of business activity using the survey data held by the Scottish Government. The index for March 2020 was published on 13 May, and indicates a considerable proportion of companies in the Accommodation and Food Services and Culture, Recreation & Other Services sectors Scotland have reported lower turnover in real terms than 12 months ago. This publication is available at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/monthly-business-turnover-index-march-2020/

The ONS has published initial UK-level data on the impact of COVID-19 by industry through its Business Impact of COVID-19 Survey (BICS). Data for Wave 4 of BICS (covering the period 20 April to 3 May) was published on 21 May, and includes data on the Accommodation & Food Service sector and the Arts, Education & Recreation sectors. This includes data on responding firms’ trading status, and impacts on their recent turnover.

Data from ONS’s BICS is available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/output/datasets/
businessimpactofcovid19surveybicsresults

In response to a request from the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) for support to continue its operations, I suggested that it worked with Scottish Enterprise on the details of the case for support and agreed to meet the Trust. NTS indicated on 8 May that it was preparing to announce potential redundancies. It wrote to the Scottish Government on 11 May confirming its decision to put 429 of its staff at risk of redundancy, and announced the decision publicly on the same day.

I met with the National Trust on 15 May to discuss the financial impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak on its business, and the outcome of the early discussions with Scottish Enterprise on the case for Government support. In that meeting I questioned whether the Trust was making the maximum use of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) to mitigate redundancies. I also was clear that Scottish Government support would be difficult while the Trust was proposing to proceed with redundancy plans.

Following that meeting, a team from Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise has been asked to work with the NTS to explore its financial situation and provide recommendations which seek to ensure its long-term security while, as much as possible, protecting jobs and keeping properties open. This team held its first meeting with the NTS on 26 May.

We are committed to working with the Trust to explore the support measures necessary to ensure that it can carry on its valuable work, but are clear that any request for public funding needs to be focused on achieving maximum public value and must be accompanied by a clear case which demonstrates both the need for support and the public benefits that it will provide.

The Scottish Government in collaboration with Creative Scotland have acted very swiftly in putting measures in place to support the sector and we are looking ahead to its safe restart.

The arts and culture sector is exploring ways to bring people together whilst ensuring safety, artistic integrity and economic viability. Many things need to be considered – particularly how physical distancing can be accommodated by performing arts organisations and within venues. We will continue to discuss with the sector looking ahead to guidance on re-opening and will consider potential support measures. As I mentioned to the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee on 21 May I cannot yet comment on what the measures and resources could be, but these will be kept under consideration.