Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has no functions concerning the legal protections in place to protect disabled people from disability discrimination during the employment-seeking process. These functions are reserved to the UK Parliament, as set out in Section 5 of the Scotland Act 1998. More information is available on the Scottish Parliaments website( https://www.parliament.scot/about/how-parliament-works/devolved-and-reserved-powers )

We are currently in initial stages of scoping a ‘Percentage for the Arts’ scheme, which would channel a small percentage of spending on all new public buildings and spaces into support for arts and culture. This work will require significant engagement and consultation with the culture, creative and heritage sectors, local authorities, and across Government, to put in place assessments of the legal, analytical, regulatory, and financial issues. Consideration must also be given to the environmental and equalities impacts of the scheme.

The Scottish Government has had regular discussions with Museums Galleries Scotland on its decision to pause its small grants programme during the current cost of living crisis. It was jointly agreed that MGS would pause its programme to determine the best way to make use of the remaining funds it receives from the government and address the sector’s needs and priorities at this time.

MGS has created a new Resilience Fund to better support the sector for the remainder of the year. This was announced to the sector on 12 October.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with Museums Galleries Scotland to understand the current challenges faced by the sector. We have agreed with Museums Galleries Scotland that it will repurpose the grants it receives from the Scottish Government into a new Resilience Fund, in order to support museums to build their resilience through activity that will reduce costs, increase income and support communities. This new fund was announced on 12 October.

The Scottish Government has allocated budget of £1,345,000 for the prevention of the destruction of the marine environment and allocated budget of £26,228,000 for efforts to police marine protection, including by vessels operated by (i) Marine Scotland and (ii) any other authorities.

Full details of the Scottish Government's monitoring and evaluation of International Development spending is available at Monitoring and evaluating international funding - International development - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

We are working towards publishing the refreshed Culture Strategy Action Plan before the end of the year. As part of this, we have been working with the culture sector to identify priority workstreams to support recovery and renewal, taking into account the combined impact of the Covid pandemic, EU Exit, and the cost of living crisis, and are considering the recommendations from the Creative Industries Leadership Group and National Partnership for Culture. We published the Scottish Government’s response to the National Partnership for Culture recommendations in September 2022.

The Scottish Government's decision making criteria for international development spending are as set out in our 2016 Strategy available at Global Citizenship: Scotland's International Development Strategy - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). However, we are currently implementing a review of our International Development Strategy following a review in 2021 (full details available at Coronavirus (COVID-19): review of international development programme - International development - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). We are planning to have a revised International Development Programme in place from 2023 which is being guided by the recommendations of the 2021 review. Full details of the new International Development Programme, covering decision making criteria and more, will be made available on gov.scot as these become available.

The announcement of the emergency budget review, as noted in the response to question S6W-11144 on 19 October 2022, confirmed a pause to all non-contracted spend, which included the remaining Youth Music Initiative budget.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Non-contracted spend, including the remaining Youth Music Initiative budget, was considered as part of the cost of living emergency budget review following the announcement of the review by the First Minister on 11 August, which was further outlined in the Deputy First Minister’s statement to Parliament on 7 September.