Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government directly funds Museums Galleries Scotland and Historic Environment Scotland to support the sector by providing advice and grants to organisations across Scotland. In 2026-27, we will provide £6.25 million of resource funding to MGS, which includes funding to continue the flagship museum futures programme as well as £1.6 million in capital funding. In addition, we support Historic Environment Scotland, which offers a grant scheme of around £13.5 million a year.

I encourage the Adam Smith heritage centre to engage with MGS and HES on sector-specific support, as well as VisitScotland and Scottish Enterprise, to help to maximise its potential.

Local authority cultural provision is entirely a matter for each local authority. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their budgets and to allocate the total financial resources that are available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. That means that local authorities are accountable to the public who elect them and have the financial freedom to operate independently.

As of 1 February 2026, 450 of 461 public libraries across Scotland were open, with a further eight libraries scheduled to reopen. Some remain closed due to refurbishment or reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete inspections.

The Scottish Government places great importance on public libraries and believes that everyone should have access to library services. The Scottish Library and Information Council has convened a short-life advisory group to explore good-quality public library services, and I look forward to receiving its recommendations shortly.

The issue is not about blame. There needs to be an optimal working relationship between the Scottish Government and local authorities, which we will achieve through the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. I find it disappointing that there are arts and culture closures in different local authorities, but that picture is not universal. Closures are a choice that locally elected representatives make.

Often, I hear calls from Mr Fraser’s side of the chamber that there is too much centralised control and that there should be local decision making—on this issue, I agree with those members. This is an area in which local authorities have responsibility. We will work in partnership with them, because I want to protect culture and arts services across Scotland, but we will do that only through partnership and local government delivery, just as the Scottish Government is delivering for culture and the arts.

The Scottish Government supports small and medium-sized cultural events through Creative Scotland’s multiyear funding. Creative Scotland will receive an additional £20 million for its multiyear funding programme in 2026-27 as part of our commitment to provide a further £100 million to the culture sector by 2028-29. That will take the funding available to £74 million in 2026-27, which will enable Creative Scotland to support cultural events across Scotland, with 77 per cent of the multiyear funding portfolio going to presenting organisations that deliver performances, exhibitions and events directly to the public.

The Scottish Government funds our national cultural body, Creative Scotland, which has funding programmes that are open to creative authors. Organisations that receive Creative Scotland multiyear funding, such as the Scottish Book Trust and the Gaelic Books Council, also support creative authors. There is also support for a wide range of book festivals, which enable creative authors to platform their work and engage with audiences.

The Scottish Government also funds organisations that preserve and promote Scotland’s arts, culture and heritage, including the National Records of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland, Museums Galleries Scotland and Historic Environment Scotland.

Local authority cultural provision is entirely a matter for each local authority. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their budgets and to allocate the total financial resources that are available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. That means that local authorities are accountable to the public who elect them and have the financial freedom to operate independently.

The Scottish Government engages regularly with the UK Government on broadcasting and will continue to represent Scotland’s interests. As part of that, ministers press for greater inclusion of Scottish sporting events in the listed events regime.

In August and December, we wrote to the UK Government to express our disappointment about the Commonwealth games not being broadcast free to air. I urge the UK Government to use its powers to ensure that Glasgow’s games are broadcast free to air. Broadcast rights for the Tour de France are a matter for the event owner, but we are working with partners to maximise the grand départ’s reach.

I agree that the Scottish land fund invests in many projects that we would all support. I am sorry to hear about the local difficulties that Pam Gosal reports in relation to the Tower arts centre. I would be grateful if she could forward details to me so that I and my officials can have a look at that, because it would be beneficial to allow a project that is of such importance to the local community to go ahead.

I will not take an intervention at this time. I have already taken one.

There is no doubt that the Maduro regime in Venezuela was illegitimate. However, as the First Minister has said, it is hard to see how international law has been respected. I also recognise that recent statements by the US Government about Greenland have risked destabilising the international order. Across history, smaller nations have been exposed to threats from more powerful nations. In that case, a strong and unified response saw European nations stand behind the principles of sovereignty and self-determination, and that unity has produced results.

The US is our ally. The bonds of friendship between the people of Scotland and the US run deep. I will be clear, however: the US Air Force does not have a base at Glasgow Prestwick airport, has not operated one since 1966 and does not have any personnel based at the airport. Glasgow Prestwick airport does not determine the policy, destination or mission of any aircraft using facilities there. Instead, it provides regulated aviation services in line with UK law, international aviation standards and long-standing agreements between allied nations.

Sometimes, friends and allies act in ways with which we disagree, and we disagreed fundamentally with the US in relation to Greenland—