Chamber and committees

We can feed that in as well. Thank you.

Are there any practical ways that we could do that across the Council of Europe or by talking to different countries in the network?

Cabinet secretary, you mentioned the issue of where the money will come from. I note that solutions have been suggested, such as the tourism visitor levy; a percentage for the arts scheme, which your manifesto said could generate £150 million a year; and social prescribing. However, as with multiyear funding, those are not here now; potentially, they are years away. Does that not take us back to the perfect storm and the need to save organisations now? That came across incredibly strongly from Creative Scotland last week, and it has also come across from many organisations that have lobbied us individually.

I know that you will not be able to comment on the Filmhouse. However, to look at the issue, there were enough investor organisations to keep the Filmhouse going, yet it went straight into administration, with no public discourse and with nobody knowing about it. There is something about keeping our organisations open—keeping the “doors open”, as Sir John Leighton said to us in September. How do we support Creative Scotland now, rather than cutting it? There might be cross-Government support, such as business support and economic advice to organisations now.

Creative Scotland made clear to us that organisations will potentially go under without support now. Therefore, it is about two things: not only support now, in terms of funding through Creative Scotland, but advice and support to avoid that culture of doom that was talked about last week. How do we keep organisations going when there are potentially donors, funders and local organisations that, when faced with a crisis, would come together?

I know that you cannot talk about the Filmhouse but, with two weeks to go, there are people out there who have resources and would be up for saving that organisation. That issue is not just local but international, because of the Edinburgh international film festival. What do we do now?

I welcome that response. I saw the announcement that you spoke about.

It would be good if there was something that we could look forward to, such as the acceleration of the tourist visitor levy or the introduction of a percentage for the arts scheme. However, the most recent response that we had from you on the budget said that that is years away, in 2025-26, so it is not a current solution. There is pressure on Creative Scotland’s budget this year.

Following on from that, it is about what practical support could be available now. There is support for organisations through Creative Scotland. It is clear that it is difficult for organisations that are using reserves, because they have those reserves for very good reasons—they could be about the organisation’s legal obligations, for example. The issue is about support for them now. Going back to the cuts to Creative Scotland, it is about that message of health and wellbeing, jobs, economy and tourism; it is about not only the cultural aspect but the wider impact on the economy.

I will broaden that out to look at our big five cultural organisations: Scottish Ballet, Scottish Opera, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the National Theatre of Scotland. They have had standstill budgets since 2016-17. How do we support our organisations now? Part of that is through funding, but part of it is through challenging Covid hesitancy, which Donald Smith spoke about last week. What is the Scottish Government doing to get people back into culture? We have a cost of living crisis, but what more could the Scottish Government do now to get people back into culture and to support those organisations now?

I have a brief follow-up question, cabinet secretary. It was good to hear that you talked to local government representatives. Every time that I do that, they just remind me of the cuts that they have experienced over the past decade and of the fact that culture has taken the biggest cut. It would be very welcome if new items could be put on the agenda to support culture, and to support people in the cultural sector, and—reflecting on your last comments—artists in particular, to work in schools.

It is excellent to have you with us today. I have a follow-up question. In June last year, we had a very good visit to Brussels. We need to follow up, rebuild and reset our relationships. You have your top priorities, and I wonder about the other softer power issues, such as culture, education and tourism—you also talked about trade. Are there ways that we can re-establish connections or not lose those connections with the range of members that you have in the Council of the European Union?

This has been an excellent discussion. I took out of our previous round-table discussion the phrase “the perfect storm” and the challenge of keeping the doors open and the lights on. Today, I have heard that culture and heritage are in our DNA but that we need to avoid the culture of doom.

Given the cuts that you have talked about from the start of our discussion today, is there a need to have rescue plans to keep organisations viable? I give the closure of Filmhouse as an example. Nobody saw that coming. It came as a total shock. The organisation went into administration and there was no space for a potential rescue plan. There are still discussions, but the moment an organisation is in administration, there is a very different trajectory.

Given that it is much easier to save a project than to deal with the wider negative impacts of loss, and given that everybody has talked about the benefits of culture, is there something that we need to do, such as creating crisis plans, in order to get wider cross-Government support? In the case of Filmhouse, we will potentially lose two cinemas, with a massive impact on the Edinburgh international film festival, and there are impacts on jobs, the economy, culture and education.

Is there something that we need to do now to avoid walking into further crises? Should we be asking Government to provide support and stop the cuts? From what you have said, particularly in your opening contributions, it seems that many organisations across Scotland are moving into a very difficult position. I am looking at Iain Munro, because we started with him and he has the big cuts coming up.

That the budget cut will have real impact is a really powerful warning to us. Many of those venues have already started to dive into their reserves, so there will be no spare cash left for organisations to keep going, never mind invest in buildings. That is really powerful evidence.

I will follow that up with Moira Jeffrey. In your submission, you gave us powerful case studies, which cover the matters of wider community benefits, impact on the economy and loss of jobs—if we lose people from arts and culture, we do not get them back. Do you want to say a bit more about that?

It is good to be able to follow up the discussions that we had last year. I want to pick up on the opening comments of Iain Munro from Creative Scotland. You mentioned a number of organisations that you fund and the potential impact on budgets, because they have had cuts and significantly rocketing costs.

We need to look at the opportunities. We have raised things such as the per cent for art scheme and the tourist visitor levy, but they seem a long way off, as does social prescribing. What do you think the solutions are now? In the organisations that you mention—this was also mentioned in the SCAN submission—there has been a hollowing out, and a lot of artists and cultural workers have already gone. What is your advice on what we should say in our budget report?