Chamber and committees

VisitScotland has made significant progress on measures to improve efficiency and better tailor and target the support that it provides. A key focus of VisitScotland remains how it can continue to evolve to best meet the ever-changing demands of the visitor and events economy, while ensuring that public funds are used to maximum effect. The Minister for Business and Employment engages regularly with VisitScotland, and I will ensure that Ms Tweed’s views are conveyed to its chief executive when they meet again next month.

All books that are published in this country are available in the National Library of Scotland, and Mark Griffin makes an important point about keeping and preserving local history, particularly regarding tragedies and the loss of life.

There is also a wider question about the promotion of important works, as Mark Griffin has described. I would be happy to discuss the matter further with him to explore whether there is anything else that can be done in relation to that question.

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.

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.

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.

First, decisions about local provision are, in the first instance, for local authorities.

I reprise my point that we are being well advised by the Scottish Library and Information Council, which is looking at many of the issues that Tess White raises. I have not yet received its report. Given the member’s strong interest in the subject, I would be grateful if she would share her examples with the short-life advisory group, and copy me in, so that I can better understand her points about the region that she represents.

I listened closely to what has just been raised, which is a matter of concern. Our proceedings are watched outside the chamber, including by the likes of the Scottish Library and Information Council. I would be grateful if the member could forward me information about those cases, because that sounds very concerning. I would like to look a lot more closely at that and to draw the issue to the attention of the council.

The Scottish Government is delivering an additional £20 million in funding for culture in 2026-27, which is the next major step in honouring our commitment to provide an additional £100 million annually for culture by 2028-29. That takes the total annual increase in the culture budget to £70 million since 2023-24, and the additional funding has allowed Creative Scotland to offer multiyear funding to a record number of cultural organisations.

Multiyear-funded organisations now have a base in 27 local authority areas, and 35 per cent of organisations operate beyond their home postcodes, which provides communities across Scotland with access to the arts.

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.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and I wrote to the UK Government in August and December last year to express our concerns and disappointment about the Commonwealth games not being broadcast on free-to-air television. I urge the UK Government to use the powers at its disposal to ensure that Glasgow’s Commonwealth games are broadcast on free-to-air television so that they can be enjoyed by everyone.

Broadcast rights for the Tour de France are a matter for the event owner, ASO. We are committed to working collaboratively with all partners to develop opportunities to maximise the exposure and reach of the grand départ to ensure that it can be enjoyed by as many people as possible.