Committee
Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee 11 March 2021
11 Mar 2021 · S5 · Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee
Item of business
Cultural Sector (Impact of Covid-19)
Isabel Davis
Watch on SPTV
You might be aware that we have now, happily, almost entirely restructured Screen Scotland and we have individual teams—they work together, of course—across scripted and unscripted. In skills development, we have a head of production who works across all teams, but is holding the centre on our skills strategy. We also have a head of audience development. We are now in a position to take forward the work of the business plan, which I think it is fair to say is a very good description of what we do and how we will measure it, and really get into the guts of what it will take to move the dial across each of those areas. It is fair to say that skills is a huge focus for us, and we expect to get our strategy around skills together early in the next financial year. The skills strategy is a priority because, across the infrastructural piece and the key performance indicators and objectives there, we are doing quite well. I think that you will know that the Bath Road facility is now up and running with the “The Rig”, which is a major high-end TV show financed by Amazon. That will start shooting in the next financial year. Bath Road is now established in the international market as a base for production, alongside a constellation of facilities, build spaces and purpose-built studios across Scotland. Of course, more recently we have seen that Kelvin hall will benefit from investment from the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council to provide an entertainment space for production, alongside an existing build space for production. That is in live use. In infrastructure, we are doing very well. We now need to ensure that the absolute corollary to that is a strength and depth of crew that can support our efforts. That is a big focus for us. The work is at quite a developed level across the agencies that we work with as Screen Scotland, hand-in-hand with industry. We have some phenomenal skills providers in the new entrants training scheme, for example, and others that we are developing on a bespoke level for productions. We know that next financial year, as well as looking at how we can invest our budget in growing a skills strategy, we can look to partners and to industry to leverage everything that we collectively bring to encourage Creative Scotland’s crew base. The role of screen in Scotland’s economic recovery is incredibly important; it absolutely has to happen. We remain in a global race for an extremely valuable and growing market sector. We will take our place at that table through a close relationship between growing infrastructure and skills. There are other areas to consider. We are also very focused on talent development, locally originated stories and locally developed intellectual property that is in the hands of Scotland-based companies. Again, that is the most important factor in our sustainability and is reflected in our KPI that we want to see more Scottish companies turn over more than £10 million in any given year. Televisual is the organisation that typically publishes the list of companies that are turning over £10 million, but I think discretion was the better part of valour in this current year and it has chosen not to publish the turnover of companies. As you can imagine, that is not necessarily something anyone would have welcomed. However, we can look across Scotland’s TV production company base and see real strength and growth across that sector in the success of, for example, Two Rivers Media. Your frequent witness Arabella Page-Croft’s company, Black Camel Productions, has also done extraordinarily well. It made “The Brilliant World of Tom Gates”, with Ken Anderson, the first 10 episodes of which were put out on Sky. The programme really found its audience and we are very excited about what comes next for that project. 09:45 Arabella Page-Croft has another project that we have helped to support called “Annika”, which will bring another hopefully returnable drama into Scotland. There are signs of growth across the piece, and I think that we can feel pretty confident that there is a link between how we have supported productions through slate funding, individual project funding and the development of the crew base, and keeping those productions in Scotland. You are nodding, Ross. I can keep talking about each of the areas of development that we are working towards so that you have a sense of where we will take each area of our business plan, but is there anything in particular that you want me to focus on?
In the same item of business
The Convener (Joan McAlpine)
SNP
Good morning, and welcome, everyone, to the ninth meeting in 2021 of the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee. We have received apologies ...
Iain Munro (Creative Scotland)
Thank you, convener, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased to be able to give evidence to the committee this morning. I realise that this is the last pu...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you very much. As you noted, this is likely to be our final committee meeting of the parliamentary session. It will certainly be the last committee mee...
Iain Munro
In the early weeks and months of the pandemic, we internally swung in those early moves to provide the initial support. As I noted in my opening remarks, tha...
The Convener
SNP
Thanks very much. That is helpful. You talked about how individuals in Scotland get funding that individuals in the rest of the UK do not get. I note that, a...
Iain Munro
There was quite a lot wrapped up in your questions; I will try to steer my way through them. I agree that the issues are all important. I will address the ...
The Convener
SNP
Thanks very much. I will come back to some of those issues later. I will hand over to Claire Baker MSP.
Claire Baker (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab)
Lab
Good morning to Iain Munro and Isabel Davis. I have met Iain during the process—I have some questions for you, Iain. You gave a helpful introduction to how...
Iain Munro
Again, there was a lot wrapped up in your questions. I will try to make sure that I cover everything. The vast majority of funds, including the culture org...
Claire Baker
Lab
Thank you. That is helpful. You mentioned that one of the purposes of the funds was to protect jobs, which is also one of the purposes of the theatre recov...
Iain Munro
Your question about the unions is an important one. Part of the change that was under way for Creative Scotland pre-pandemic was about how we move to open ou...
Claire Baker
Lab
I appreciate how challenging this is. Does the data tell you how many jobs have been lost and how many redundancies there have been, or does it just say how ...
Iain Munro
That data does not tell us that, although a sense of loss of income and loss of employment opportunities is emerging from the sector survey, which is also co...
The Convener
SNP
This is all absolutely fascinating stuff, Mr Munro, but I ask you to keep your answers a bit shorter. A lot of members want to ask you questions and I want t...
Ross Greer (West Scotland) (Green)
Green
I have a couple of questions, primarily focused on screen. I will address them to Isabel Davis in the first instance, but some of them probably cut across wi...
Isabel Davis (Creative Scotland)
No, you will not find that document. As Iain Munro has pointed out, and as we all know, this year has been about getting our sleeves rolled up, getting all h...
Ross Greer
Green
Iain Munro wants to come in, I believe.
Iain Munro
Yes, very briefly. I think that you pointed to it, but the annual report and accounts, and the annual review for Creative Scotland, include sections specific...
Ross Greer
Green
Yes, thanks. I have the annual report in front of me, although I could not find the annual review. The Creative Scotland website annual review section goes u...
Isabel Davis
You might be aware that we have now, happily, almost entirely restructured Screen Scotland and we have individual teams—they work together, of course—across ...
Ross Greer
Green
I am conscious of the time, although this is very interesting and, in general, I am very pleased with the progress that has been made, because this has been ...
Isabel Davis
I would like to signal that we are now in a position whereby each of the component parts of what it will take for the screen industry to achieve success can ...
Ross Greer
Green
Fantastic. Thank you very much.
Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP)
SNP
I will focus on some of the practical elements around culture, not least because if anyone was asked to describe my engagement with culture more generally, t...
Isabel Davis
It is great to know that you are an old friend of Lynda Myles, who remains one of the leading lights in the Scottish festivals. Her days at the Edinburgh int...
Stewart Stevenson
SNP
Thank you very much for that. I should not overplay my relationship with Lynda Myles. I was at the biggest school in Scotland—our year was nearly 500 people—...
Isabel Davis
It is such a fast-growing industry that the gaps are everywhere. That is a very good question, and I think the answer is “all of the above” if we are to succ...
Jamie Halcro Johnston (Highlands and Islands) (Con)
Con
The question I was going to ask was the one that Stewart Stevenson has just covered. I will go back to something that I think has been covered slightly. I re...
Iain Munro
You raise an important point. I will say up front that we have a keen eye to understanding the support that we are able to provide in and alongside the suppo...
Jamie Halcro Johnston
Con
Thanks. Do you want to come in on that, Isabel?