Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
Response to CEEAC Pre Budget Scrutiny Report
Letter from Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture to the Convener, 23 December 2021
Dear Clare
Following the publication of the proposed budget for 2022-23, I am replying to your letter of 1 November 2021 and the Committee’s pre-budget scrutiny report which concentrated on culture sector funding.
I am very grateful to the Committee for its work on culture funding, the range of evidence gathered through the evidence sessions and the focus group, and the helpful way in which the results were summarised and set out in the report. I found the session I had with the Committee on 7 October was very useful in starting to explore some of the themes raised in your investigation.
The 2022-23 budget for my portfolio totals £370 million covering - in addition to culture and heritage - major events, external affairs, and the National Records of Scotland.
We will invest £277 million in Scotland’s culture and heritage sector, including additional support so that Historic Environment Scotland can continue to protect and care for our heritage and communities while its commercial income continues to be affected by reduced tourism income.
On the cultural funding which is the subject of the Committee’s report, we are continuing to support core funding including, for another year, £6.6 million funding for Creative Scotland so that, while lottery income continues to be at lower levels, it can maintain funding for its Regularly Funded portfolio pending changes to its Funding Strategy. I have also been able to find some additional funding for both youth arts and the screen sector.
Multi-year funding
Before I turn to the remainder of the Committee’s recommendations, I would like to start with the question of 3-year funding settlements for the organisations in receipt of regular Government funding, as I know how important that will be to many of those who gave evidence to the Committee. This remains an important Government commitment. The 2022-23 budget confirms funding available until March 2023. Alongside the Budget, as noted by the Committee, we have published our Resource Spending Review Framework. This consultation document sets out our intentions to develop and publish multi-year portfolio spending plans by the end of May 2022. These plans will provide the culture sector and others with greater certainty for future planning.
The Committee’s report concluded that it is essential that 3-year funding settlements are, where practical, passed to the groups and individuals funded by Government bodies. Creative Scotland confirmed in a future funding statement on 28 October its intention to develop a multi-year funding approach from April 2023, recognising from its Funding Review that a greater number of organisations require funding on a multi-year basis. Our forthcoming Resource Spending Review will support that aim. The funding for Creative Scotland in the 2022-23 budget will enable it to implement the planned transition from its current funding model to the new approach. We will be discussing that new approach with Creative Scotland early in 2022 and I am conscious of my offer on 7 October to write to the Committee with more detail in due course.
Recovery and Transitional Funding
I agree with the Committee’s observation that funding for cultural recovery relies to a certain extent on Barnett consequentials arising from UK Government support. The position remains unclear about the £40 million consequentials expected from the UK Government’s Cultural Recovery Fund, announced in the March 2021 Budget. There have been further announcements this week about overall consequential funding for the Scottish Government in the light of the COVID 19 developments, but it is not absolutely clear if those reflect the consequentials for cultural recovery.
As regards the Scottish Government’s allocations of cultural recovery funding this financual year, I can report the following. As Jenny Gilruth announced in the Chamber on 9 December, we have now allocated from the £25 million, announced in June, over £4 million for the innovative Culture Collective programme as well as £2 million of capital support for the museums and galleries sector, £1 million of which is to support the re-establishment of the Scottish Crannog Centre in Kenmore. These announcements followed an earlier commitment to make £1.2 million available to support the reopening of public libraries.
The First Minister announced on 17 December £20 million support for the culture sector from the £100 million lifeline Scottish Government funding package to support businesses experiencing cancellations due to the rapid spread of the omicron variant. That has now been increased to £21 million using some existing events budgets.
I announced on 22 December that from the £21 million, £8 million will be allocated to the Cancellation Fund for Creative Freelancers, to be administered by Creative Scotland, reflecting the consistent reports I have been receiving about the impact on the freelance workforce of recent cancellations. The fund will open for applications on 6 January. A further £10.2 million will be available for cultural organisations and venues, to be administered by Creative Scotland. There will be £2.8 million (including the £1 million from the major events budget) for the events sector, to be administered by EventScotland.
This additional £21 million makes a total of £46 million additional support from the Scottish Government for the culture and events sector so far this financial year, surpassing the £40 million in Barnett consequentials for cultural recovery expected from the UK Government. The additional COVID-19 protections announced by the First Minister on 21 December, which come into force after Christmas, are obviously having a further impact on the culture and events sector. We are reviewing urgently the potential for additional support and I will keep the Committee informed of further announcements.
Mainstreaming and the spending review
The Committee recommended that a multi-year spending review should consider how budgetary decisions can support the mainstreaming of culture across the Scottish Government, including recognising the relevance and impact that culture, health, education and wellbeing have on each other. As I briefly indicated when we met on 7 October, the Cabinet has since taken the opportunity to consider the combined effects of the pandemic and EU exit on the culture sector and the need to support longer-term recovery and renewal on a cross-government basis. The discussion on 8 November noted the unique role that culture can play in helping Scotland to recover from the pandemic by making progress towards a wellbeing economy.
Following that discussion, I am starting a series of conversations with fellow Cabinet Secretaries in the key complementary areas of education and skills; health and wellbeing; economic development; and net zero. This is so that we can identify areas of joint collaboration and action to inform our portfolios’ part in the multi-year Resource Spending Review. We intend this to inform both the outcome of that spending review and a longer-term cultural recovery plan. More detailed recommendations from the National Partnership for Culture, established under A Culture Strategy for Scotland, on capitalising the synergies between culture, health and wellbeing will also be concluded in early 2022. As the Committee recognises from the evidence it has seen, there is widespread appetite, interest and capacity in the culture sector to engage with the health and wellbeing agenda, and this is a real opportunity in developing a cross-cutting approach.
Innovation
I welcome the Committee’s conclusions about the way cultural organisations and freelancers have demonstrated new ways of doing things in the pandemic and confirm my observation that we should now view things with fresh eyes. We will continue to explore with the sector, particularly those who receive funding from the Scottish Government, how we can build on the innovative use of digital technology and reflect this in the longer-term cultural recovery plan.
We will be entering the evaluation phase of our £1m Creative Digital Initiative in 2022 and plan to use this evaluation to help determine where further support would be most valuable in supporting creatives in developing their digital and data skills going forwards. The Creative Digital Initiative has been taken forward via a multi-agency approach and this collaborative way of working will be essential going forwards as we look to learn from the sector’s innovative response to Covid-19.
Funding Process
The Committee report helpfully reflects the discussion we had on 7 October about balancing a process which responds to applicants’ needs whilst ensuring accountability for public funding and delivering public good. I note the specific recommendation for Creative Scotland and local authorities as regards grassroots organisations. Creative Scotland’s refreshed Strategy and Funding Framework sets out that it will move towards a more tailored approach to providing support “based on the specific context and individual needs of the organisations”, with funding applications and monitoring scaled according to investment. I believe these are positive intentions and will discuss further with Creative Scotland.
I look forward to discussing with the Committee the range of CEAC portfolio proposals in the 2022-23 budget at the planned session in January.
Best wishes,
Angus Robertson
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