Meeting of the Parliament 25 October 2023
Scottish Labour has brought forward this debate because we recognise and revere the enormous contribution that the arts and culture sector makes to Scotland’s national life. As Professor Jeffrey Sharkey, the principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, recently put it,
“Artists are the connectors, creators and envoys of Scotland, within our communities and across the world.”
The sector is important to our society and to our economy, too. The creative industry is worth nearly £4.5 billion and it supports 80,000 jobs. The arts and culture sector punches massively above its weight in our economy. Its contribution to brand Scotland and our image around the world cannot be overstated. Our artists, writers, performers, directors, producers, creators and many more who support them should be the pride of Scotland. We owe them a debt of gratitude.
However, the sector is at breaking point after years of underfunding. What has the Scottish Government’s response been to date? At the start of this year, the Scottish Government threatened to cut £6.6 million—equivalent to 10 per cent—from Creative Scotland’s funds in the budget for 2023-24. On 21 February this year, the Scottish National Party did a U-turn, to much fanfare, and cancelled its proposed cut. However, in late September, just seven months later, the cabinet secretary disgracefully did a U-turn on the U-turn and confirmed that the £6.6 million cut was going ahead after all. That was met with a furious response, and no wonder—it was a serious betrayal of trust.
Since then, the cabinet secretary has been unequivocal when he gave me a “gold-plated” assurance on 5 October that the money will be restored next year. People in the sector are now asking what that commitment is worth, when previous promises were broken. I say to the cabinet secretary that a promise is a promise, and it should be kept this year. That is in order for the Government to start to rebuild trust with the sector, avert a looming crisis and prevent job losses and venue closures.
The Government has clearly been feeling the heat on that, thanks to the work of Campaign for the Arts, Culture Counts, the Musicians’ Union, Equity and many others. That pressure is why we had the First Minister’s announcement on arts and culture funding at the SNP conference last week. Earlier today, the cabinet secretary challenged me to welcome that announcement. We do welcome that statement of intent, which is all that it is at this stage, but we welcome it given the parlous state of the sector and on the basis that there is a clear delivery plan. However, we do not welcome broken or baseless promises, and we do not welcome the cut this year, which risks organisations—which have to submit their applications to Creative Scotland today—going to the wall.
Today’s debate is an opportunity for the cabinet secretary to cancel his cut this year, set out details of the announcement and answer a series of questions. I start with the question that he failed to answer earlier. Why is the Government stating that it is doubling the arts and culture budget by £100 million when the existing budget appears to be £175 million?
People in the sector deserve to know what is and is not included. Does the budget include the national performing companies? How will the £100 million be distributed over the next five years? Where is the funding coming from? How much of it will materialise in the coming budget? When will a timeline outlining the decisions on the distribution of funding be published?
I am happy to give way to the cabinet secretary now if he wishes to answer those questions, or perhaps he will answer them when he takes the floor in a moment’s time, because it is essential that the Government provides answers and clarity not just to restore trust but to give certainty.