Plenary, 19 Jan 2006

Meeting date: Thursday, January 19, 2006

Official Report 727KB pdf

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Cultural Commission

The next item of business is a statement by Patricia Ferguson on the Cultural Commission. The minister will take questions at the end of her statement. Therefore, there should be no interventions.

On St Andrew's day 2003, the First Minister said:

"I marvel when I see what a fantastic country Scotland is for cultural expression … we need a greater sense of ambition in our approach to culture … we can set a course that will, over several years, make a huge difference."

My message today is that the enthusiasm of that occasion, when the Executive celebrated its passionate commitment to our nation's culture, is not reserved only for our patron saint's day. Our commitment is for all seasons. We remain ambitious for Scotland's cultural life—ambitious to promote our twin aspirations of excellence and access. Today, I will share with members how we plan to invest, as never before, to make our aspirations a reality.

On St Andrew's day 2003, the First Minister outlined the Executive's vision for culture. Today, my statement and the document "Scotland's Culture", which we published today, set out a new cultural policy for the years to come. They define the infrastructure and legislation to deliver it. They also describe our investment, which we are proud to make.

Scotland as a nation is blessed with immense creative talent. Let me start by briefly reaffirming why the Government has a passion to see that talent flourish. The importance of that talent could easily be overlooked because of its very centrality—but not by this Government. The artists whose work delights and touches us in turn help to articulate our experience of life—in pictures, words, music and movement—by adding their personal vision in ways that are immediate, universal and timeless. Therefore, it is fitting that we should define a cultural vision that seeks to provide creative expression and opportunity for all as

"the next major enterprise for our society".

The Scottish Government believes that culture is a vital ingredient in the country's success, both here and overseas. Culture is also central to the well-being of Scotland's citizens. Its inspirational qualities defy measurement—just as there is no adequate way to define the confidence and pride that culture's myriad works stir up in those who participate and in those who look on in admiration.

The First Minister proposed a fresh policy of cultural rights for every citizen to access high-quality provision. He said that the then impending review would examine whether the infrastructure was in place to realise our hopes for Scotland's cultural life. Today, we announce our decisions on the cultural review. I think it fair to say that the Cultural Commission's report, which is one of the most comprehensive examinations ever undertaken of Scotland's cultural life, received a mixed press. As I said in Parliament in September, I welcomed the enthusiastic contributions from people who hold our culture dear and want their aspirations to be realised.

The commission was asked to produce a route map to implement the ambitions that the First Minister had described. It was asked to suggest practical and efficient ways that would focus the resources available on producing culture, not on fuelling bureaucracy. I do not propose to dwell on whether that is what the commission did. My task today is to say what I think is the best course for policy, infrastructure and our strategic direction.

In policy terms, the Executive's objectives for Scotland's future cultural development are those that I suggested during our September debate. We seek to celebrate the country's cultural and creative talent and to develop it to the highest levels possible. We aim to maximise practical opportunities for all citizens to access culture of real quality. All the changes that I am announcing today are focused on those goals.

In November 2003, the First Minister said that Scotland should embrace the concept of cultural rights, to ensure that people have an equal chance to participate in the nation's cultural life and heritage. The starting point was to examine ways of ensuring rights of access for citizens and communities across Scotland, so that people can have more opportunities to take part in cultural activity.

We have studied the commission's proposals on rights and entitlements. The action that we shall take seeks to make a real difference in helping everyone to gain access to the arts. We believe that there are two elements to that. First, there is the framework of international and European rights that already exist, such as those that are laid down by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. In the policy document that is published today, we endorse the international provisions unreservedly. Secondly, there is the issue of how those rights are made real locally—in other words, entitlements. We see responsibility for such entitlements falling to local government, as part of its cultural and community planning responsibilities.

Local authorities already play a major role in delivering cultural services, so it is entirely appropriate that they should play a pivotal role in widening opportunities as part of our new vision. Legislation will require local authorities to develop cultural entitlements and cultural planning, as part of their lead community planning role. That will ensure that the needs and wishes of people and communities can drive cultural provision in their local areas. I believe that this represents a powerful package of rights for communities to access and enjoy the best and widest possible range of cultural activity.

The opportunities provided through entitlements could include access to information about a local area's cultural heritage, free access to a live performance or the chance to take part in a community art project. We shall work with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to find effective and practical ways to fulfil that duty, reflecting high-quality standards of provision. We shall look to local authorities and their community planning partners to demonstrate the rich and invaluable contribution that culture can and will make to the lives of everyone living in Scotland, across the widest range of local services.

The approach that I have described mirrors very much what the Executive is doing in light of the First Minister's 2003 speech, when he announced the Scottish Cabinet's collective ambition to place culture at the heart of the policy-making agenda. As a response to the cultural review, all Cabinet ministers have pledged to consider how their future portfolio policy and financial initiatives might be assessed for the contribution that they can make to supporting and developing the Executive's cultural agenda for Scotland. Other portfolio contributions can impact in many ways, such as the Education Department's support for literature and arts in the curriculum and the Health Department's funding for projects improving mental health and physical activity through the arts. That shared commitment demonstrates my belief that, if we work together, we can make a real difference and bring culture into many more lives than it touches now.

As I indicated in September, I believe that the clarification of roles is vital if the change that we plan is to be effective. The new cultural infrastructure for delivering our policies is focused on what I see as the Scottish Executive's responsibilities for support and development. Beyond that, we shall act to encourage our principal partners and other providers to develop their contributions, to ensure that Scotland as a whole can enjoy the results. We have an important opportunity to establish the right cultural landscape and to reorganise activities to deliver our goals. I intend to explain how the Government's top cultural objectives will be served by the delivery arrangements that I am about to describe.

We have an obligation at national level to do three crucial things: first, to ensure that cultural talent in Scotland is recognised and nurtured and that excellence is developed as a national resource, recognising and advancing Scotland's outstandingly talented artists and their achievements; secondly, to promote the best of Scotland's rich cultural treasure trove, maintaining and presenting, as openly and accessibly as possible, Scotland's superb national galleries', museums' and library collections; and thirdly, to make the best of the nation's performing activity available, right across the country, providing national performing arts companies that produce excellence in and for Scotland.

The organisations that form part of our present cultural infrastructure have achieved much, and my ambition now is to build on that success. We must ensure that our future cultural achievements, and those of our partners, are delivered in ways that boost participation, access and enjoyment.

As I have said, the first thing that we must do is help Scotland's cultural talent develop to the highest possible levels by taking what I shall call the escalator approach. Too often, the success of talented performers and Scotland's creative community is more the result of good luck rather than good planning, of serendipity rather than support. We think that ambition and talent deserve a helping hand. We need to link up the stages in artists' career journey from the early discovery of cultural talent through education and training and into the world of work in the creative community.

The education and outreach activity that we shall expect from all nationally funded cultural organisations will help to give younger and older people right across Scotland a wealth of top-quality opportunities to learn and develop.

As far as the pre-school stage is concerned, we shall aim to build on—and perhaps extend the focus of—the successful bookstart programme. In schools, cultural engagement and creativity will have an important role to play, and we will bring together programmes such as cultural co-ordinators and active schools co-ordinators to work with teachers in dynamic teams to maximise pupils' experiences of culture. In developing the curricular framework, we intend that culture should be not just a context but a vehicle for learning, and we will want to build on the successes of our youth music initiative.

After school, further and higher education institutions will have an important part to play. The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the recently launched Scottish Screen Academy and other initiatives involving Scotland's renowned art colleges all have a role in facilitating access, developing talent and equipping their students to take advantage of creative opportunities.

Of course, it is not enough to develop talent through the formal education system. We also need to sustain it and to provide an environment in which it will flourish and be appreciated. As a result, we will establish a new cultural development agency called creative Scotland, which will be formed by merging the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen and which will have the key task of developing talent and excellence in all branches of the arts and in the creative and screen industries.

In establishing the new agency, we will ensure that we put in place the right support package to enable Scotland's creative industries to thrive. We will also promote the parts of the creative sector that deserve a new focus, such as publishing, literature and contemporary music.

Creative Scotland will lead the development of national standards for the creative sector and advise on cultural entitlements. It will also draw up national guidance to maximise the contribution of all parts of the cultural sector and other partners, including the private and voluntary sectors. Moreover, through Arts & Business Scotland, I will make available from April new funding to encourage wider sponsorship of the arts.

It is no secret that I am also particularly keen to ensure that we celebrate the role and contribution of our best creative artists. A new scheme to recognise their achievements will be launched later this year.

The Government's second key role is as the custodian of Scotland's rich cultural treasures, maintaining and presenting our superb national collections. I am keen to make those collections truly accessible to us all and to present them as widely and effectively as possible to domestic and international audiences.

We will expand the cadre of national collections bodies to help to maximise the presentation of their world-beating contents. As a result, to the National Galleries of Scotland, the National Museums of Scotland and the National Library of Scotland, we shall add the National Archives of Scotland, the Scottish Screen archive and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

We want to ensure that resources are directed not to where they will be wasted on unnecessary bureaucracy but to where they will make most impact. Although we will maintain our institutions' independent status, we will take this opportunity to explore how joint approaches can best improve delivery. Joint exhibitions and combined support functions and outreach activity are just some of the aspects that could deliver real benefits.

The national collections bodies will also play a part in delivering the cultural rights agenda. They will be responsible for developing national standards for their sectors and will help to develop and, as appropriate, provide cultural entitlements.

Of course, a range of other organisations throughout Scotland also hold collections of national significance and make a major contribution to the achievement of our national cultural priorities. Scotland's local museums and galleries will therefore benefit from increased national funding with the launch of the new recognition scheme developed by the Scottish Museums Council. Industrial museums will also benefit from increased funding. In collaboration with the Scottish Library and Information Council, I will also be making funds available to promote the maintenance and improvement of standards in public libraries throughout Scotland.

The third key role of Government is to support the national performing arts companies that are producing work at the highest level. As members know, our national performing arts companies are currently Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the National Theatre of Scotland. We are proud of our existing national companies and we want them to flourish. We have decided to establish explicit criteria to define the status of a national performing arts company so as to include adult and youth companies alike. Organisations that qualify for national performing body status will have to meet exacting criteria, including achievement of the highest artistic performing standards. Those standards will provide the target to which all budding arts companies should aspire and then continue to meet. In future, it will be open to performing companies—adult and youth alike—that are not presently counted among the national companies to join if they meet the qualifying criteria. We will expect the new national companies to co-operate with one another on joint projects and productions and to collaborate on common administrative functions.

To underline its commitment, the Executive plans to increase its funding to the companies that qualify beyond the level currently made available through the Scottish Arts Council. In future, the Executive will fund the national companies directly. That is consistent with our relationship to the national collections. We will therefore work with the companies and the Scottish Arts Council to put the necessary funding arrangements in place as soon as possible and to provide for the transfer of relevant Scottish Arts Council staff to the Executive. Nothing in those new arrangements will affect the artistic independence of those companies. That must not, and will not, be compromised. Like the national collections, the national performing bodies will also be expected to contribute to the cultural rights agenda and the development of standards and entitlements for their respective sectors.

The Executive currently dedicates 1 per cent of its total budget directly to culture—£187 million in the current financial year. That figure increases significantly when our contribution to local authority cultural expenditure is included. That contribution amounts to approximately £200 million, and it is supplemented by a further £200 million committed by Scottish Executive departments that use the power and creativity of culture to help to achieve their objectives.

By 2007-08, the Executive's annual cultural spend was already planned to increase to £214 million. In order to implement the decisions laid out in the policy paper, I have secured an additional £20 million per annum from April 2007 onwards. That is an exceptional increase of almost 10 per cent in the Executive's annual spending on culture in advance of the 2007 spending review. We will channel that new investment to bolster the ability of our national cultural organisations to develop and present for Scotland the best creative and cultural talent. We will bring the necessary budgetary revisions before Parliament later this year.

Today marks the start, not the end, of a new journey towards achieving our ambitious aspirations for Scotland's cultural life. That journey began on St Andrew's day 2003 and Scottish ministers are now determined to continue it to reach a Scotland that values and celebrates its culture and its experience of culture.

The commitment has been made, the ambition to achieve excellence has been stated and the vision is now coming into focus. What I have announced today will ensure that all Scots can share in the fruits of the culture that inspires and defines us. I invite members to support Scotland's cultural future, which I have outlined, and to endorse the means of achieving it.

The minister will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement, for which around 40 minutes will be allocated. I invite members to press their request-to-speak buttons now. I call Michael Matheson, to be followed by Ted Brocklebank.

I thank the minister for providing an advance copy of her statement, or at least the first 19 pages of it—three pages were missing.

I welcome the new resources that the minister has just announced. The Scottish National Party shares her ambition to ensure that the Scottish cultural community can flourish and develop. Clearly, there are a number of proposals in the minister's statement that are to be welcomed, in particular the provisions around education. However, there was limited detail in the statement and I suspect that the devil will be in the detail and that it will take some time to get the detail and flesh out exactly what impact the proposals will have.

I want to question the minister on two areas. First, I welcome the decision to fund the national companies directly, which the Scottish National Party proposed doing several years ago and which we also proposed in our submission to the Cultural Commission. However, there will clearly be concern within the Scottish Arts Council that the Executive has decided to remove the proportion of SAC funding that would have gone to the national companies and to return it to the Executive. When does the minister intend to implement that change? Why has she chosen to fund the national companies directly but not to leave the existing moneys for them in the SAC budget, thereby giving its budget a significant uplift that would allow it to support other community cultural activities?

Secondly, on the issue of entitlements, I am sure that the minister will be aware that councils must often turn to their culture budget when funding is tight, as it is seen as a soft target. I am sure that she will agree that although she may make legislative provision for entitlement at a local level, that will not necessarily make the cultural programmes that need to develop at a local level actually happen. How does she intend to ensure that local authorities provide the right resources to ensure that good cultural programmes develop at a local level and that those programmes allow people to take up their new-found entitlements?

First, I apologise to Mr Matheson if he did not get the entire version of the speech. We will ensure that he receives it in due course.

We will obviously have to enter negotiations with a number of organisations in order to make what I outlined in my statement a reality. We will do that very quickly. A series of meetings is already in place for the next couple of weeks and we will work to ensure that people and organisations are not left in limbo for any time. We want to ensure that the transitions happen just as quickly as we can arrange them.

The money that is currently given to the national companies to allow them to operate is actually Executive funding, channelled through the Scottish Arts Council. We will fund the companies at a level that is appropriate to the work that they are required to do. We will enter negotiations with them to ensure that we are coming to the kind of totals that we think are right. We are aware that a number of the companies have deficits and we are working very hard to ensure that they are not burdened with such deficits in the future.

As far as leaving money with the Scottish Arts Council is concerned, obviously we are talking about setting up an entirely new agency—creative Scotland—to replace the SAC. We will have to negotiate and work with it to assess the levels of funding that it will need to do the tasks that we ask it to do. That negotiation, too, will begin relatively quickly and I will obviously be keen to report back to Parliament as soon as it has concluded.

It is, in fact, Murdo Fraser who will lead for the Conservatives. He will be followed by Donald Gorrie.

On behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, I welcome the minister's statement, which is a long-awaited response to the Cultural Commission's report. I also thank her for the copy of the statement. Like Michael Matheson, we were also missing three pages, so he should not feel victimised.

We particularly welcome the announcement of direct funding for the national companies, which is a measure for which the Scottish Conservatives have called for many years. I think that we did so in our manifesto for the 1999 elections, so I am delighted that the Executive has caught up. I seek to tease out a little more detail from the minister on that issue and on a secondary issue. What will be the status and structure of the five national companies that are to come under the Executive's control? Will they be classed as non-departmental public bodies or will they have some other designation? Will they be directly responsible to ministers, as is, for example, the Scottish Qualifications Authority?

I also have four short specific questions on the new body that is to be established, creative Scotland. I appreciate that the minister may not have all the details today but, if she does not, perhaps she will answer my questions subsequently. First, will the body have an elected board? Secondly, will it be an audited body? Thirdly, what funds will it hold? Fourthly, for what purposes will it hold its budget?

The member asked several detailed questions.

The governance arrangements for the national companies will largely continue as at present. They will have their own boards and operational systems, but we will encourage them to work together to share back-office functions wherever that is appropriate and possible and to ensure that they programme comprehensively so that we do not have clashes. We believe that a number of steps can be taken. We are putting the national companies on a footing that is similar to that of our national collections, which is entirely appropriate.

Creative Scotland will have Exchequer funding through the Scottish Executive and will also hold the lottery funding that the Scottish Arts Council currently holds, which is an important principle to establish. The body will not be audited in the formal sense of the term that Mr Fraser perhaps meant, but it will certainly be the subject of funding negotiations with the Scottish Executive. As always, we will ensure that those are as transparent and open as possible. The other questions that Mr Fraser asked about creative Scotland may be answered in the Executive's response to the cultural review, to which I referred. If not, I will make a point of writing to him with the answers.

The minister's statement in response to the Cultural Commission report was judicious and well balanced and steered a good way through the minefield. The extra money that the minister announced is welcome. I am sure that all interested members will try to squeeze out more money, but she has done well.

I want to focus the minister's attention on how we can deliver better opportunities for local cultural activity. It is important that the new money that she has announced goes to the scene of the action and is used effectively. Local authorities are a major partner in providing culture, so they must be greatly involved locally. The commission suggested local cultural forums as a vehicle. What we call such bodies is a matter of opinion, but the minister should encourage the creation of local bodies through which local authorities and people who are interested in providing or taking part in culture in different ways join together. If individuals wish to take up music, art, dancing or drama, local drama associations, choirs, dance groups and so on that are supported by the council should be available for them. The vexed question of charges for premises must also be dealt with properly. We need a partnership between councils and local cultural people that delivers opportunities. We cannot tell a person who wants to sing that they have an entitlement to do so when there is no local organisation for singing. I ask the minister to focus on those issues. She has dealt well with national issues, but we really must deliver locally, too.

The mechanism that we plan to put in place will address the issues that Donald Gorrie raises. We see local authorities as spearheading the citizen-led approach to the development of cultural rights and entitlements throughout the country. We recognise that those rights and entitlements will be developed in ways that are appropriate for the local level, and I hope that local communities will participate actively—[Interruption.]

Minister, it is important that you address your microphone. Your voice fails significantly when you turn to address the questioner.

My apologies, Presiding Officer. I never like to be rude to Mr Gorrie, but on this occasion perhaps I shall have to be.

As I said, we recognise that rights and entitlements will have to be developed in ways that are appropriate for the local level, and we hope that local communities will participate actively in the development of those schemes through the cultural and community planning network. We will work with COSLA and its sister organisation, the Voice of Chief Officers for Cultural, Community and Leisure Services, to produce guidelines and quality assurance tools to assist local authorities in reaching that goal. I hope that that will be helpful to local communities.

I remind the chamber of my declaration, in the register of members' interests, of my chairmanship of the Scottish Library and Information Council.

I welcome the minister's statement, particularly the additional resources that she announced. I have two specific questions, the first of which is on quality improvements in libraries and the money that is available for that. Given that a number of local authorities have achieved significant improvements in quality using existing resources, will she ensure that the additional resources are used not only to help those who have been unable to improve, but to help those who have improved to develop further? Secondly, in encouraging community planning partnerships to build in cultural rights, can she say a bit about how she will consider those areas where community planning partnerships span different health boards, local authorities and local enterprise companies?

On public libraries, as I am sure that the member is well aware, the organisation of which she is chair has worked out a helpful matrix for improving standards. We intend to fund a pilot to assist some 10 public library authorities to develop those standards and evaluation criteria. We wish to ensure that, having piloted that, checked that it works and confirmed the data, it is something that we can take throughout the country.

As far as the community planning partnerships are concerned, I hope that we can manage not to restrict people to the community planning area in which they happen to live. I am conscious that because of history, size or geography, some local authorities are better endowed with wonderful collections, exhibits, theatres and so on than others. I hope that where there is more cultural provision in one local authority or cultural planning area than there is in another, partnerships will develop across those boundaries and that people will work to ensure that they are achieving the appropriate set of rights and entitlements for the communities in their area, while not restricting them to that area for participation purposes.

I congratulate the minister on bringing the statement to Parliament. I have no doubt that it was not her department that was responsible for a well-informed article in last Sunday's papers.

May I suggest to the minister that it is at the very least questionable to describe the Executive's £187 million spend on culture—out of a total managed expenditure of £27 billion—as 1 per cent?

It would be churlish not to welcome the extra £20 million per annum—according to the Cultural Commission, that is the minimum needed to restore arts funding to the level it was at before the Government came to power in 1999. However, the commission argued for an increase of five times that in order to make the First Minister's dream a reality. How much of the extra £20 million will go into new bureaucracies and how much will go directly into the hands of Scotland's artists? Does the minister agree in principle that it is Scotland's artists who can deliver the First Minister's dream and that sustainable careers are more important than structures?

I am glad that Mr Ballance asked that question. I want to put on record that what the Cultural Commission said was that it saw the figure of £100 million as largely symbolic and that that was the amount of money that should accrue to culture across two to three spending reviews. It also identified eight sources of funding, only one of which was the Scottish Executive. In addition, I point out that the figure that the commission used was based on the 2003-04 figure of £138 million as the global budget for culture in the Scottish Executive. By the time that the Cultural Commission reported, that figure had increased; by 2007-08, there will have been an increase of £76 million to £214 million.

The £20 million that I have secured will be a baseline figure and I can use it to lever in additional funds at future spending reviews. In addition, my colleagues throughout the Executive are identifying an additional £200 million from their portfolios to contribute to our ambition. That is not necessarily the end of the story, but it is a good way of taking forward the First Minister's ambition.

Will the minister assure the Parliament that companies such as the 7:84 Theatre Company, which actively promotes access to participation in theatre in line with the Cultural Commission's recommendations, will be protected? Given that 7:84's funding is guaranteed for only a matter of weeks, how will that protection be ensured?

I do not think that today is the day to go into the individual funding details of any particular company. Obviously, those funding arrangements are being discussed between the Scottish Arts Council and the company that Rosemary Byrne identifies.

The Scottish Arts Council, quite rightly, carries out reviews of the organisations that it funds to ensure that they are achieving best value for money and that the money that they spend on behalf of the citizens of Scotland is used to further access, excellence and the other remits that we have given them. The SAC has to make funding decisions. Those decisions are not always comfortable or popular but I believe that when the SAC makes them it has all the information and considers all the facts. We will have to wait and see what its decision is on the company that Rosemary Byrne identified.

I advise that I have a great many names on my screen. Having been round all the parties, I will therefore restrict subsequent members to a single question and I will interrupt if there are elaborate build-ups before those single questions. I call Susan Deacon, to be followed by Alex Neil.

I welcome the minister's statement and, in particular, the emphasis that she placed on the early years. Does she agree that it is vital for the emphasis to move from the review to the implementation of change? How does she intend to put the necessary energy, pace and momentum into the process of change, not just within the Executive, but nationally and locally, throughout all the agencies and individuals that have an interest? Specifically, does she intend to publish an implementation plan and timeframe for the vital action and investment that she outlined today?

I thank Susan Deacon for welcoming the statement. She is absolutely right and I agree entirely about where our focus needs to be. The early years are vital, because habits are formed even before one gets to primary school. It is important that young children at nursery school are given as much exposure to the arts and culture as is possible and sensible at their age.

In the document, I give a rough idea of the milestones that we envisage as we make the policy a reality. I hope that that information will be helpful. Obviously, we have already been working behind the scenes on our implementation plan. As I said earlier, we intend to move quickly. We have in place a range of meetings with various organisations that will be affected by the policy and we will ensure that we make the handover and the changeovers as quick and painless as possible. However, we will not rush, because we do not want to miss important points and important elements of what we are trying to do along the way. We will move as quickly as we can, but we will try to follow a rational path.

I welcome the minister's statement and in particular the additional resources that will be made available, but I say to her that there is a heavy emphasis on additional funding for institutions. We need to consider more direct funding of individuals to allow their talents to flower. That might involve, for example, complementing the work of the Dewar arts awards to help young people who, for financial reasons, need to go furth of Scotland for ballet training and so on.

I emphasise that we see the development of cultural talent as being part of an escalator approach, and we will try to ensure along the way that we put in place as many safeguards for people as we can. I am encouraged by the work of the Dewar arts awards in providing instruments and additional educational help to young people with talent, but we will see whether we can supplement that with a range of bursaries that might also be worth while. We see both those elements as part of a package of measures. We already have the creative Scotland awards, which are welcomed in the artistic world, and Mr Neil probably knows that I am keen that we should recognise the outstanding contribution of our artists over a long period. We hope that there will be such markers throughout the development of an artist's experience and talent.

The minister will be aware of my interest in industrial museums, and in particular in the Scottish Maritime Museum with the Denny tank in Dumbarton. Would the minister care to amplify her comment that industrial museums will receive increased funding? Is that likely to include access to capital and to curatorial expertise, and will it ensure that there are stable streams of revenue support going to industrial museums with items of international significance, so that they are secured for the long term?

We are well aware that there is a range of local museums and facilities that house items and collections of national—sometimes even international—significance. That is why, working with the Scottish Museums Council, we have developed the national significance scheme. We hope to have that scheme rolled out during 2006, and it will be through that scheme that bodies such as the Scottish Maritime Museum will be able to apply for funding, and I am sure that funding will be granted if they meet the appropriate criteria. That will be done flexibly, and we will consider the needs of those organisations and the applications that they make.

Like Jackie Baillie, I am interested in the minister's reference to increased funding for industrial museums. Will that allow an expansion of the institutions that fall into that category, to include institutions such as the unique Museum of Lead Mining at Wanlockhead in my constituency, which currently receives no central funding, despite its historic, educational and national importance?

As I have said in response to previous questions, I cannot get dragged into the specifics of whether or not a particular institution would qualify, but it would obviously be open to that organisation to apply for funding from our national significance scheme. If it qualified for that funding, it would receive it.

I point out that I am a member of the Musicians Union.

The minister's remarks about UNESCO are important because UNESCO recognises the things that are indigenous to a country. Does she believe that the indigenous arts and contemporary music of Scotland have moved up the priority list? As far as I can see, national company status is a model that is suitable for certain arts, but may not be suitable for others. How can indigenous arts and contemporary music get top priority and how can we get more investment in them?

I am aware of Mr Gibson's interest in those endeavours. In fact, I have shared one or two experiences of listening to them with him in the recent past. Creative Scotland's remit will include support for nationally important arts bodies that meet minimum standards and the development of national standards across all art forms. I see the function of creative Scotland as being about nurturing and developing the very organisations and art forms that Mr Gibson has mentioned.

I have loads of questions, but I will ask just one. I welcome the statement, the new money and the move to mainstream arts funding in the Scottish budget. I am also interested in cultural rights, and at the moment there is a hierarchy of funding for the arts. How does the minister feel that today's announcement will help to nurture and promote Scottish traditional arts—song, music, dance and language—at local, national and international level?

As I said to Mr Gibson, we envisage creative Scotland having the key role in ensuring that such art forms are supported. However, it is also important to say that the escalator approach that I outlined is very much about developing individuals with talent from their pre-school years through school and further education until they start their careers. As I said to another member, we will consider a system of scholarships and bursaries to assist the transition from FE to higher education and into employment—perhaps self-employment—and will build on existing ideas and schemes. It is important to recognise that the idea of rights and entitlements means that there will be much more demand at local level for access to such art forms and I hope that, in the longer term, that will help to support the artists and people who want to pursue those art forms.

To be on the safe side, I remind members of my entry in the register of members' interests. I serve as a director of Grey Coast Theatre and am a trustee of both Tain Guildry Trust and Tain Museum Trust.

My question for the minister is simple. How can she ensure that an individual—whether they are a child or an old person—who lives in a remote part of Scotland such as Durness in my constituency will have the same access to the arts as someone who lives in a conurbation in the central belt?

That is a very good question. I have said that I understand the difficulty that is often experienced by people who do not live close to a museum, a gallery or a theatre and who want to access such provision. What is important is that the cultural planning elements of the proposals that I have outlined should happen at the most local level and that local communities themselves should make suggestions and demands about their rights and entitlements so that they can access the kinds of art forms that they wish to. Some people's requests might well be met by the availability of one of our national collections in digitised form, or they might wish to seek assistance with travel so that they could go a little further afield to access their preferred art form. We must be flexible in considering a range of locally driven ways of meeting communities' rights and entitlements.

I congratulate the minister on the excellent proposals that she has put before Parliament today and I wish her well on their implementation.

Does she agree that it is logistically impossible for everyone to get access to all the arts that are available in Scotland today? Down at Rozelle House in Ayr, there is a magnificent collection of murals by Goudie on "Tam o' Shanter". Would it not be a good idea to put images of those murals on to a disk along with a voiceover of the bard's tremendous words and to send that out to schools, libraries and other organisations? That would help to deal with Jamie Stone's point about access in remote areas.

Mr Swinburne is right. The point that I made to Jamie Stone was that access might sometimes have to be provided through digitisation. Digitisation is a highly useful tool because it allows us all to access examples of artistic excellence from all over the world. If we were to go down the route that Mr Swinburne suggests—I have a sneaking suspicion that what he proposes may already have been done, but I could be wrong—I hope that we would not restrict availability to people in Scotland, but would export that wonderful creativity around the world as an example of the great things that we have in Scotland.

My question follows on from what Rob Gibson and Cathy Peattie asked about. The minister mentioned the possibility of bodies other than the present national companies aspiring to become national companies. Does she envisage that that possibility could be extended to the traditional sector so that the national fiddle orchestra or the national Gaelic choir might be established, or will national company status be reserved for the high arts?

No, not at all. I meant that we could have national performing arts companies in any sphere and for any art form. Given some of the fiddle music that I have heard in recent times, what Maureen Macmillan describes cannot be that far off. Obviously, we expect any body that aspires to that status and to being funded in that way to reach the very highest levels of artistic endeavour. They will also have to meet the criteria that we will put in place.

The minister's objectives are to achieve excellence and access for all. Will she reassure Parliament about how the local authorities can deliver their part of the bargain, as there is so much pressure on their funds and so many of the major cultural opportunities in Scotland rest on so many theatres and arts venues around the country, such as the Pitlochry Festival Theatre in my constituency, with which the minister is familiar and in which she takes a great interest? How can that support be delivered by local authorities that are under constant budget pressure?

Obviously, we will work with the local authorities to assist them in this important endeavour. It will be important for local communities to identify to their local authority, in the way that I outlined earlier, the kind of experience that they want. It may be that that would be provided by a theatre or gallery, but it may also be gained through more local means, such as the opportunity to participate in a community performance. The cultural rights and entitlements that we are putting in place will mean greater opportunities for the local authorities to work with the Executive to achieve that kind of outcome.

Again, I do not want to talk specifics. I am well aware of the difficulties at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and that Mr Swinney has been trying to assist it. In the longer term, I believe that what we have outlined today will be a better way forward for some of our theatres and venues around the country.

We must be creative in how we take forward these rights and entitlements. The local authorities will want to find out what works. One of the things that the Executive will do is help to fund the pilot scheme that is being undertaken as part of the year of Highland culture in 2007, part of the planning for which is to give particular entitlements to young people. We will see what works before either rolling out those entitlements across Scotland or suggesting to the local authorities around Scotland that they take them up. We will pilot some things and see how they go.

I hope that the strategy that we are putting in place means that people around Scotland will have greater access to all that is excellent about our arts.

I take the minister back to the theme of outreach. I note what she said in her statement about museum funding. Does that take us any closer to the point at which Executive funding may be made available to support projects such as my proposal for the declaration of Arbroath to be shown again in the town where it was originally drafted some 686 years ago?

It was inevitable that we would get bids from the airts and pairts, as they say, but I do not want to be that specific. Obviously, if the local community were to identify that as a priority, the local authority might want to consider the proposal. I encourage Mr Johnstone not to wait for anything new to happen. He should try to explore existing mechanisms to see whether his project could become a reality rather more quickly than he envisages at the moment.

The Executive's cultural policy has had the gestation of an elephant—certainly, it is just as weighty. Fortunately, today's statement shows that it has some saving graces. Given that some of our performing arts companies call themselves "Scottish" and that criteria will be applied in the decisions that will be taken on the new national companies, will the regional companies that aspire to become companies of national status be able to do so when there remain companies that call themselves "Scottish" but are not yet national?

The criteria that we will put in place will be about the quality that a company will have to aspire to and achieve in order to be called "national". We want those companies to be truly national. In addition, they will have to participate in educational and outreach work. Any company that manages to meet the criteria that we will set down could, after negotiation, be considered as part of our national companies. However, we would have to take a serious, hard look at any organisation that aspired to join that elite band.

I should declare that I am a friend of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Does the minister's statement mean that Aberdeen will see the return of the regular performances there by Scottish Opera, which were greatly enjoyed and are hugely missed by north-east audiences? Is there any likelihood of an earlier return to Aberdeen than the current date?

I understand the frustration that has arisen because Scottish Opera has not been able to tour main-scale opera to Aberdeen and Inverness in the past year or so and is in fact unlikely to be able to do so before 2007. I hope that everyone will appreciate the need for Scottish Opera to stick to its stabilisation plan and balance its books in future.

The transfer of support for Scottish Opera from the Scottish Arts Council to the Executive will involve an increase in funding in return for minimum standards of performance, touring, education outreach and governance—all the things that I outlined to Mr Monteith. I hope that in future we will see Scottish Opera appearing again, magnificently, in Aberdeen and Inverness.

Will the minister consider sympathetically the ambitious, exciting and forward-looking proposals of the National Museums of Scotland for reinventing themselves? Their plans will increase access enormously for countless persons, even if they involve phasing over a considerable number of years.

I presume that Lord James is talking about the master plan that has been developed for the museums. We welcome the heritage lottery fund stage 1 approval of £16 million funding for the £45 million redevelopment of the Royal Museum. We have already funded a £9 million project of improvements at the museum and linked developments at the Museum of Scotland storage site at Granton. We have also awarded a development grant of £800,000 to match the heritage lottery fund's development funding. We are scrutinising the option appraisals for the project with a view to seeing whether we would be able to contribute further.

In Scottish schools there are roughly 600 sports co-ordinators and 60 cultural co-ordinators. Will the minister consult the Minister for Education and Young People, who is sitting in front of me, on the possibility of increasing the number of cultural co-ordinators in Scotland's schools?

Mr Peacock and I have had long and detailed discussions on that and a number of other issues connected with my statement today. It is important to stress that we value the work that is being done by the active schools co-ordinators and the cultural co-ordinators in our schools. They make an extremely valuable contribution where they operate. Our desire is to have them embedded in the school structure and to see them working with dynamic teachers to ensure that we have a team approach to the kind of developmental work that we want to happen in schools. We are involved in discussions on that and are committed to it for the short and long term.

I thank all members for the brevity of their questions, and the minister for the conciseness of her answers. That has enabled me to call everyone who was on my screen. The only remaining item is that Mr Ballance has asked members to accept his apology for omitting to mention his entry in the register of members' interests when he asked his question. I am sure that members will be pleased that he has now drawn that to their attention.