Chamber and committees

The first thing to reflect on is that Screen Scotland is part of Creative Scotland. As Mr Adam has just pointed out, Screen Scotland has shown itself to be extremely successful at using the resources that it has to leverage in additional resources for co-production and so on. One reason why we have been keen to give it some more resource is so that it can do even more of that.

We need to reflect on the fact that there are bits of artistic creation that will never make money or be profitable, but are as intrinsically important to our cultural life as those that are commercially viable and successful. That is the eternal tension: it will never go away. We have to try to get the balance right for our cultural life—between the commercial and the non-commercial and the conventional and the less conventional. Some things are not necessarily everybody’s taste or priority, which is why we have an arm’s-length organisation to deal with those things. Mr Adam is right to say that there is a tension.

It is my hope that, in her review, Dame Sue Bruce will be able to point us in the right direction to share understanding from the bits of the cultural ecosystem that are early adopters and forward looking in securing commercial income. We should ensure that organisations that are very good at philanthropy are more widely understood. I think that we can grow the cake.

It is not just that certain institutions are very good at things, so they should just be left to get on with it—we all have an interest in the entire sector thriving. I hope that the review will help us through this period of change, both by signposting different ways of doing things and by providing capacity and support.

We have not talked about skills yet. We must ensure that part of the wider thinking—it is—is about the next generation of people who want to become creatives or work in trades within the culture sector, and their getting the traditional and modern skills to enable them to do so.

That is why this is a really exciting time for us to be getting the funding to where it needs to be, as well as getting in place the architecture around how we administer, fund, educate, skill and promote the entire sector so that all that can be done in the best way possible. This is going to be a very good year with regard to all those aspects.

Yes—currently.

That is a big subject. We need to understand the cultural forces that are leading to changes in use of cultural venues. Cultural venues, high streets and churches—though not exclusively those—are three particular areas where we have seen massively accelerating factors at play that make our public authorities and agencies reflect on what that means for venues.

I am not sure that we have yet got to grips with how we make sure that we retain cultural venues at the level that all communities wish for, or how we make sure that high streets are as vibrant as people wish them to be. The church estate, which has been an important part of community life and history, is being sold off at an accelerating rate.

Those three things were the subject of a conversation that I had yesterday with the new chief executive of Historic Environment Scotland. The conversation was about with whom we need to work and talk about those three things—there will, no doubt, be others—to make sure that there is coherence in dealing with such societal change. With three minutes left in this evidence session, I suspect that we will have to come back to all that, but Ms Mackay can rest assured that I believe that the matter is definitely something that we need to be thinking about.

On accessibility, our having significantly more regularly funded organisations being part of the multi-annual funding programme, the Cultural Collective operating right across Scotland, and the community collective operating as part of a wider offer, will mean that, throughout the country, cultural organisations will have funding so that they can rehearse, perform, have open days, work with schools, work with groups of retirees and so on.

I think that that funding will go some way—I hope it will go a significant way—in relation to the accessibility of culture in localities across Scotland, and that it will also be felt positively by venues across Scotland, whether they are headline culture venues, repurposed public venues or church venues. That is part of what I hope will emerge this year, in relation both to funding and working together with other bodies to make that so.

Yes.

I will go back to Mr Bibby’s point briefly. His question is a really good one. I will give him an example of a very current area that he knows about, because I have spoken to him this week.

Let us take broadcasting as an example from the creative sector. We have worked on a cross-party basis to make sure that public service broadcasters are commissioning everything that they can and should in Scotland, given that we pay a licence fee. In recent weeks, we should all have been given reason to question whether the system is working. Is television commissioning in Scotland’s screen sector supported in the way that we have been told it should be, and does it have safeguards for supporting jobs in the sector?

A good example of why there has been a difference in employment levels is the massive concentration of screen and TV in London and the south-east of England, although there have been moves to correct that. The Governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland agreed, the English regions agreed and the BBC has agreed. That is why the BBC moved to Salford and why it says that it is trying to commission elsewhere.

I know that the committee is looking at that issue, but that is a good example of why there is a differential, and why there is a real prize in getting it right so that there is a smaller differential and so that we grow the creative sector as much as possible.

I have said to Mr Bibby that I will write to him, because I know that it is an important subject.

I agree with Mr Kerr that it is important that we appreciate how important philanthropy and corporate sponsorship are to culture and the arts in Scotland, as they are elsewhere. There are recent examples that should give us all cause for concern. For example, I am concerned that children from deprived backgrounds might not be able to take part in the likes of the Edinburgh book festival, as they were previously, because funding has been reduced.

This is all a matter of public record, but Mr Kerr has asked me specifically about what can be done. There are things that can be done and I am keen to explore some of them this year. We might get some helpful insights and advice on the area from the forthcoming review. I will certainly share my views with Dame Sue Bruce.

It is not illegitimate for people to want to know that the financial support for events is contributed by ethical providers and to ask how companies make their money. At the same time, it is important that we are protective, helpful and supportive of the arts sector so that its income is not undermined, as it has been. The challenge is in striking a balance between those two things.

I am happy to discuss that further with Mr Kerr, because I already have some ideas, but now is not the time to share them. I am seized of the issue and it cannot go on like this. A lot of the commercial organisations that have been tremendous supporters of arts and culture, such as Baillie Gifford, want to be able to support culture and the arts, and I want them to be able to do it. At the same time, I also want to make sure that, if there are ethical considerations that we should reflect on, we find ways of doing that without undermining culture and the arts. There is no doubt that the conversation is to be continued.

Good morning to you, convener, and to committee members, especially any new or substitute members. It is nice to see you all.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to open our discussion with some reflections on what I have heard from the organisations that gave further evidence to the committee last week and from colleagues, particularly from members who took part in Tuesday’s debate on valuing culture. I have listened to and read those responses with great interest and have also listened to the views of the many and varied culture stakeholders that I have had the opportunity to meet since the Scottish Government’s draft budget for 2025-26 was published in December.

It is clear to me that, although the proposed significant increase of an additional £34 million for Scotland’s culture sector in 2025-26 has been warmly welcomed by many across the sector and underlines this Government’s on-going commitment to strengthening it, we will not achieve all that we want to achieve together for culture in a single year. However, the budget is a significant milestone and, if supported by parliamentary colleagues, will take the Scottish Government halfway towards meeting our forward commitment of at least an additional £100 million annually for culture by 2028-29.

I would add that our aim for 2026-27, subject to the normal budget processes, is to deliver a further £20 million increase for the sector. I hope that my opening remarks will provide a level of confidence for the committee as well as the sector with regard to the longer-term trajectory of the Scottish Government’s commitment to invest in culture.

The Scottish Government’s budget is transformational for the culture sector in Scotland and could not be clearer about our steadfast support for Scotland’s arts and culture. It will enable us to continue funding initiatives such as the youth music initiative and Sistema. The additional funding will provide a package of support to the culture sector as a whole, including a significant funding uplift and multiyear settlement for Creative Scotland, giving it the means to offer regular funding to the biggest ever number of cultural organisations across Scotland.

The draft budget will enable the development of a culture and heritage capacity fund for the organisations that would benefit most from tailored supportive funding and guidance to help build their capacity and develop their future resilience. There will be increased funding for our national collections, the centre for design and the national performing companies to support their work, which is so important to our local communities, as well as being of international significance.

The draft budget will also double the funding available for Scotland’s festivals and ensure that more festivals beyond the central belt receive the support that they need to reach their full potential. There will also be an increase for Screen Scotland’s successful production growth fund, which will help attract international investment and encourage large-scale productions to choose Scotland because of our incredible locations, our studio and post-production facilities and our talented crews.

If passed, the draft budget for 2025-26 will support other important of areas of work, such as community access to culture, improving Scotland’s cultural exports and exchange and improving access to Scotland’s vital public libraries. Those plans for increased investment will be delivered alongside a commitment to reform the funding mechanisms for the culture and arts sector. We want to help the culture sector maximise the impact of every penny of public funding and to support it to work more closely with the private and third sectors to grow the overall funding pot for culture, diversify funding streams and become more sustainable and resilient.

In the recent programme for government, we announced a review of Creative Scotland as part of wider considerations of how the culture sector is supported. That review will ensure that the additional funding coming to the culture sector can be used to best effect.

I recognise that it is essential that the culture sector has an opportunity to input into the review, and at the start of the week, the Scottish Government launched a short survey to inform its scope. Members will know that, during the debate on culture in the chamber on Tuesday, I invited colleagues to take part, and I would encourage as many people who work across the culture sector as possible to respond. I should also say that the Scottish Government announced this week that Dame Sue Bruce will be appointed as the chair of the independent review of Creative Scotland, with a view to providing recommendations at the end of the summer.

I know that the pressures of meeting what are often significant capital infrastructure needs, along with pay settlements and inflationary pressures, have not gone away, and that many of our publicly funded culture bodies are continuing to grapple with those issues. Through our on-going work on public service reform, we are supporting our national culture bodies to work collaboratively and think creatively to come up with solutions to some of those challenges.

That approach has already yielded some positive outcomes. For example, we have agreed a revised framework document with Historic Environment Scotland that provides it with greater financial freedom to manage its commercial income. As part of that agreement, HES will reduce its dependency on public funding for its operational budget as commercial income continues to grow. This is the first year of that agreement, with a £2 million reduction in public funding as part of a five-year plan to reduce public funding by £10 million. Those greater freedoms will mean that HES will for the first time be able to invest every penny of its commercial income in protecting our historic environment for future generations, mitigating the impact of climate change, improving visitor experiences and delivering for Scotland.

It is that spirit of innovation, confidence and self-determination that is at the heart of the planned budget increase for culture in the next financial year. Facilitating an expanded multiyear funding offer from Creative Scotland will enable more of our creative people to worry less about funding and focus more on their creative practice. I look forward to working with the committee and members across all parties to make our collective ambition for a flourishing culture sector in Scotland a reality through support for the budget bill in the coming weeks.

You suggested that 150—

Point taken. There are a couple of points to make. First, this is a process that Creative Scotland is progressing with as an arm’s-length organisation. The “arm’s-length” part of that is really important. Secondly—