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Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee 11 January 2024

11 Jan 2024 · S6 · Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee

Item of business

Budget Scrutiny 2024-25

Lori Anderson (Culture Counts) Watch on SPTV

Thank you for inviting Culture Counts to return to the committee to provide post-budget evidence. I thank the committee for its work on pre-budget scrutiny and its attention to the challenges and the evidence that has been provided. I also thank the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Angus Robertson, for securing additional investment for culture in the 2024-25 budget. There is no lack of understanding of the challenges that the budget presented. I will begin by reflecting on the committee’s report, which we welcome That report recognised that the perfect storm is far from over, and that sustained and significant challenges lie ahead for the sector. We agree with the report’s conclusion that there has, in the past 12 months, been some limited progress towards developing new and innovative funding solutions—in particular, through multiyear funding settlements and cross-portfolio working. We support the committee’s call for urgent action on that and are pleased to see a number of those things in the refreshed cultural action plan. However, we would have liked the report to go a little further towards calling for reinstatement of the cut that we experienced, which happened almost during the previous meeting. We would also like to have seen being brought forward, to make it part of this budget, the very welcome £100 million investment over the next five years. Our on-going aspiration is that 1 per cent of the overall Scottish Government budget would be invested in culture. The committee has supported that ask in the past; we would have liked that to continue. I turn to the budget. Any increased investment is welcome in the current climate, and is certainly a move in the right direction. However, the settlement that has been provided does not contain a huge amount to celebrate. I will comment on a couple of areas and will leave those who receive funding directly from the Government to respond and to draw their own conclusions. I know that representatives of Creative Scotland will be here later to make their own comments, but we were pleased to see that the £6.6 million, or 10 per cent, that had been cut from its settlement has been restored. We understand that a further £6.6 million has been provided to cover what was lost from reserves, so the funding that Creative Scotland has received is not actually new investment. Also, in common with what has happened to many others in the public sector, a 5 per cent efficiency saving has been imposed. What that means for Creative Scotland, and particularly for the regularly funded organisations programme for 2024-25, is that those organisations will continue to be on standstill funding and that the proposed investment for culture is not being passed down to those organisations. I will let others come in in a moment, but the other area that I would like to draw attention to is the non-national museums that are not part of Creative Scotland’s portfolio. They are funded by Museums Galleries Scotland and 439 of the 449 museums will experience a cut in their funding, which means that they will have significant challenges in adequately resourcing their operations in the coming year. For the organisations that will see an increase, that is incredibly important and very welcome after many years of standstill funding, but the impact of a standstill in long-term investment, coupled with high inflation, will reduce the real-terms value of any increase. In addition, as we have said at previous meetings, the on-going recovery from the impacts of Covid, the cost of living crisis, high energy and utility bills and the requirement to meet the challenge of paying the real living wage will mean that the settlements are unlikely to adequately cover the increased costs. To conclude, I say that we hugely welcome the increases and are happy to see the budget moving in the right direction. However, a serious amount of investment is needed now, and from within the current budget—not over a five-year period. The money is welcome, but we need it now and our reflection is that the investment does not go far enough, either in amount or pace.

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Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee 11 January 2024

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