Hansard

As convener of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, I am pleased to speak on its behalf today. As always, I thank our committee clerks and the Scottish Parliament information centre for their support of the committee’s budget scrutiny.

At the start of this session, the committee set its priority for budget scrutiny as being the culture sector spend. I thank those in the sector who spoke to us, including Culture Counts, Historic Environment Scotland, Wigtown Festival Company, and the National Galleries of Scotland.

In evidence, the National Galleries reported that

“going to visit an art gallery for 30 minutes once a month can extend a person’s lifespan by 10 years”

and that

“Art is not a luxury; art is essential to our culture thriving and surviving.”—[Official Report, Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, 9 January 2025; c 14.]

I have spoken many times in the chamber about how culture is integral to who we are as individuals, as communities and as a country. Just as the incoming artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre was inspired by its motto to

“share Pitlochry with the world and the world with Pitlochry”,

we should all be inspired that culture allows us to share Scotland with the world and the world with Scotland.

The committee welcomes the commitment to increase investment in culture by £100 million annually by 2028-29, as well as the additional funding that is the first step towards the £100 million increase. That is good news and it is warmly welcomed by the sector.

This has not been an easy time for the sector. Confidence was knocked by the regrettable temporary closure last August of Creative Scotland’s open fund for individuals. It would be helpful for the cabinet secretary to update us on the lessons that were learned from that and on how such a scenario might be avoided in future, particularly because the funding was confirmed after the pre-budget fiscal update, a fortnight after Creative Scotland had announced the closure of the fund.

The committee’s view is that we need to substantially improve the relationship between Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government. It is regrettable that the multiyear funding programme announcements were postponed, although I note the statement of the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture today on the outcomes of the application process for multiyear funding. It is important to strengthen the relationship between the Government and Creative Scotland to prevent further uncertainty in the sector.

We agree with the culture secretary that Creative Scotland’s budgetary process, and that of the wider sector, might benefit from being in sync with the Scottish budget timetable—I would welcome the finance secretary’s thoughts on that point.

The culture secretary has just updated the Parliament on the results of the £20 million multiyear funding awards. We strongly encourage Creative Scotland to listen to those applying for the multiyear funding programme, who commented that the process

“drew major resources across many months”

and that it was

“onerous and took considerable time away from core activity”,

and who outlined

“a level of needless bureaucratic complexity”.

The challenge remains as to how the sector maximises the impact of multiyear and increased funding. The committee welcomes the forthcoming independent review of how the culture sector is supported and the review of Creative Scotland, under the leadership of Dame Sue Bruce. It is timely that we should ensure the effective distribution and investment of that additional spend.

The committee has undertaken a good deal of work in session 6 on funding for the sector, and the review could benefit by taking account of the substantial evidence base and of our report recommendations over the session, which include working on innovative funding solutions. We need much greater urgency if we are to make progress in the areas of cross-portfolio funding—some of the many possible options include a percentage for the arts scheme and the possible leveraging of private investment.

We need to engage with those delivering community-based activities as well as the bigger cultural organisations. We welcome last week’s publication of the survey on how culture and the arts are currently supported, which will inform the scope of the sectoral review that the Government has announced. As the sectoral review and the review of Creative Scotland are happening in parallel, it would be interesting to understand how the two reviews will interact and address the concerns that the committee has had over this session, such as the handling of the Rein project after the funding decision was publicly challenged and the extent to which Creative Scotland was open and transparent in addressing that matter.

More generally, and as I have mentioned, we heard from the sector that Creative Scotland’s funding process is very difficult to complete. It would be helpful if the independent chair could quickly lay out the scope of the independent review of Creative Scotland, so that we could avoid some of those concerns. The committee’s view is that we should consider operational issues as well as Creative Scotland in general.

Our culture is our lifeblood, and we look forward to seeing how those things develop. We note that the sector is very welcoming of the developments in this area.