Hansard

Thank you for the opportunity to address Parliament regarding Creative Scotland’s multiyear funding programme and today’s announcement of the successful applicants.

We spoke here on 14 January about the importance of the culture sector and why it is such a vital asset to Scotland, our society and our economy. I am always heartened by the strong consensus here about the centrality of culture to our prosperity as a nation.

Recent years have been turbulent for the sector. The effects of the pandemic, leaving the European Union and the cost of living crisis and the impact of United Kingdom Government financial austerity need not be rehearsed again now, but have put many cultural organisations in a perilous position. During that period, our role and that of our public bodies has been, as far as possible, to protect the sector against the worst of the challenges.

Today’s announcement has been keenly anticipated and definitively moves us beyond simply sustaining the sector, returning our focus to where it should be, on long-term development. The Scottish Government’s commitment to increase culture budgets by £100 million annually by 2028-29 sits firmly in that space and demonstrates our commitment to the sector’s future.

Multiyear funding is important because, by providing long-term certainty, it lays the foundations on which a diverse range of Scotland’s key cultural organisations can build. It will allow the organisations that have secured support to pursue their core work and to move on from a difficult period, while also supporting Scotland’s wider cultural ecosystem. Artists and venues will benefit from the work commissioned by funded organisations and through the use of their spaces by touring artists who will bring performances and exhibitions to communities across the country. The funding will also provide opportunities for people across Scotland to engage in culture, providing experiences that, for many, may be the first step towards a life-long and life-enriching interest or even towards the beginning of a career in the arts.

The way in which multiyear funding is being delivered will have a practical impact on the levels of support available to the sector. The increase in the number of organisations in receipt of core funding will free up Creative Scotland’s wider resources by reducing the number of organisations competing for those. Today’s announcement is the beginning of a new period in which the sector can look to the future.

Scotland’s culture sector is one of our most important assets. Our artists and cultural organisations are innovative and internationally respected, while being grounded in our local communities, and they have an authenticity that gives them their unique character. This funding package will provide stability and allow the sector to get back to what it does best—creating interesting, innovative and challenging output that enriches our lives.

I take this opportunity to formally thank Robert Wilson, Iain Munro and everyone at Creative Scotland who has been involved in the multiyear funding process. I also thank all the culture sector supporters who have played a role in delivering that transformational change.

In her statement on 4 December, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government outlined an increase of £34 million in the culture budget for 2025-26. The largest element of that increase is £20 million for multiyear funding. Subject to budgetary processes, we will increase the culture budget by a further £20 million in 2026-27. That additional funding will go in whole towards multiyear funding, taking the budget for the programme to £74 million and more than doubling it from current levels. That level of funding will allow Creative Scotland to make awards to all applicants that have met the criteria for the fund. It will mean that more organisations than ever before are supported with core funding.

I confirm that 251 organisations will receive funding from 2025-26. A number of applicants that narrowly missed out will join a development stream in which they will receive advice and financial support to adapt plans with the aim that they will receive multiyear funding from 2026-27. Creative Scotland currently supports 119 organisations with regular funding, so that represents a dramatic increase. It means that 95 per cent of organisations that reached stage 2 of the multiyear funding process will either receive grants or have the opportunity to do so from 2026-27.

Not only will the numbers of organisations that are supported increase, but so will the levels of grant. When we compare multiyear awards with grants to current regularly funded organisations, we see that average grant levels will increase by 33 per cent in year 1 of multiyear funding and by 54 per cent in year 2. The delivery of funding in that way will ensure that as many organisations as possible are supported in the coming year and that all funded organisations can see a path ahead of them to build their work and unleash their potential. Organisations across the whole of Scotland will be supported, across diverse art forms and with diverse impacts.

I hope that that addresses the concern, which I have heard, that resource would be spread too thinly. The approach represents a significant increase in both the number of funded organisations and the level of grants. It has the potential to be truly transformational, securing the future of cultural organisations of all sizes across the whole country.

For those organisations whose applications have not been successful, transition support will be available. That will be in the form of funding for organisations that previously received a significant level of funding from Creative Scotland. All organisations that have been unsuccessful at this stage of the process, whether they were previously funded or not, will be able to access transition advice. Those measures will support adaptation and business planning.

The foundations that the delivery of multiyear funding puts in place provide an opportunity to look to the wider needs of the sector. Through the funding that is proposed in the budget, we will increase support across a range of other programmes. A £4 million culture and heritage capacity fund will build resilience in museums and galleries. The festivals expo fund will be more than doubled in value and will expand its reach beyond Edinburgh and Glasgow. Screen Scotland’s production growth fund will receive an additional £2 million to attract investment in Scotland’s screen sector. The Culture Collective programme will restart with an increased budget of £4 million, providing opportunities for communities across Scotland. We will also undertake groundwork on the establishment of a cultural export and exchange service to enhance the role that international activity can play in the sector’s development.

Taken together, those measures create a comprehensive package of support that is focused on the diverse impacts that the culture sector has. Multiyear funding will allow us to look beyond the immediate and focus on new, innovative and transformational interventions.

It is important that, as part of that foundational shift, the infrastructure that supports the sector is considered. I am delighted that Dame Sue Bruce will lead an independent review of Creative Scotland’s remit and functions, which will aim to publish recommendations by the end of the summer this year. That will be part of a wider review of how the culture sector is supported as a whole. The scope of the work will be informed by responses to a public survey that closes tomorrow. Together, those pieces of work will ensure that the increased resources that we are committing to the sector will achieve the greatest possible impact.

I was pleased to note earlier this week that, following constructive engagement and discussion, Scottish Green Party and Scottish Liberal Democrat members will support the Government’s budget for 2025-26. By passing the proposed budget, we will lay the foundations for Scotland’s artists and cultural organisations to create, innovate, develop and engage locally and internationally. It will uphold the vital role of the sector in our society, communities and the economy.

I hope that this statement has provided members with assurance that Creative Scotland’s multiyear funding awards will begin a foundational shift in how Scotland’s culture sector is supported. The scale of awards, in both their number and their financial value, represents one of the most significant and positive developments in the sector for many, many years. Alongside a range of other interventions, they provide a basis for Scotland’s culture sector as a whole to look to the future with optimism and excitement about the opportunities that it will create.