Chamber and committees

This Government is committed to broadening the range of people represented in Scotland’s public places, reflecting in particular the contribution of women and ethnic minorities. A specific fund is being considered in the context of the Scottish Government’s longer term spending plans and we will discuss how such a fund might be best deployed with Creative Scotland, whose remit includes public art.

The Scottish Government funded a £1 million Creative Digital Initiative to deliver a range of activity and support to upskill creative businesses in their digital capabilities and capacity through a public sector partnership.

Creative Scotland were allocated over £290,000 to deliver multiple projects, including a digital commissioning programme via The Space to help creative businesses grow the skills, knowledge and confidence required in key areas of their digital activity. Creative Scotland also delivered a Digital Pivot mentoring and peer support programme, and the Next Level Up programme to transform those who were already digitally engaged into digital leaders and support creative industries and to cultural sector participants to take the digital opportunity to the next level.

£40,000 of funding was allocated to the delivery of an XpoNorth web portal and nearly £30,000 was allocated to South of Scotland Enterprise to deliver digital skills webinars and short courses to support the understanding of the potential of digital.

Skills Development Scotland were allocated £60,000 to deliver a Creative Game Changers programme, providing specialist mentoring, coaching and 1-2-1 support, engaging with up to 20 creative businesses, freelancers or sole traders. Skills Development Scotland are also leading on an evaluation of the project to consider next steps for upskilling the digital capability of creatives.

£525,000 was provided to Scottish Enterprise to provide large enterprise grant support.

The CDI Steering Group will consider how best to allocate any remaining funds, using the CDI project evaluation to consider sector needs.

Scotland’s population is predicted to decline from 2028 and the ending of free movement has hindered our ability to attract and retain the people our communities, public services and economy needs. It is vital that we expand the advice and support available to people moving to Scotland, showcasing all that we have to offer.

Consequently, we have made a Programme for Government commitment to deliver a Migration Service which support those who have chosen to make Scotland their home. This service will build on existing resources focusing on two elements: attracting people from across the world to Scotland and ensuring that those who have moved have access to the information required to stay here. We are currently in the policy development phase of delivering the service which we anticipate will be operational in 2023-24.

The 2021-2022 Programme for Government includes a commitment to ‘begin work on establishing 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.

We are currently in the initial stages of scoping this commitment, which requires us to take into account analytical, regulatory and legislative considerations. We expect to be able to share more information on this work in the coming months.

This Government’s recent manifesto included a commitment to establish a Youth National Performing Company. Work will commence soon setting out what this will look like and how it could be achieved. I will write to the Member to provide her with an update as work progresses.

The Scottish Government provides regular funding of £150,000 to the Scottish Youth Theatre per year. In addition, we have provided £130,000 of additional support in 2021-2022. The Scottish Youth Theatre was also awarded funding from the Creative Scotland Cultural Organisations Recovery Fund to support their recovery from the pandemic.

We are concerned by suggestions of foreign interference in Scottish universities. Our universities are autonomous institutions and the alliances they forge across global academic networks are a matter for them and their governing bodies.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the level and nature of financial investment from China in universities in Scotland as universities are autonomous bodies.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07563 on 22 April 2022. 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.

Safeguarding our democracy is of upmost importance to the Scottish Government. This includes being an open, accessible and transparent government. Public officials, including Ministers, MSPs and councillors, are subject to Code of Conducts which provide a clear set of principles and standards for their behaviour, including how to avoid undue interference from external actors. We believe the public should have trust in those they elect.

Scottish Government policy towards local authority spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant as part of the annual local government finance settlement.

It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them (including any funding for arts and culture).

Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) who are the National Development Body for the Scottish museums sector, distribute funding on behalf of Scottish Government.

Details of the grants awarded by MGS are provided below however please note that their grant processing sytem only provides details of the grants awarded since 2015.

a) Aberdeen City Council Area

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-07562 on 19 April 2022. 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 .