Chamber and committees

The Culture Collective programme was awarded £5,891,553 in March 2021 and £4,241,918 in March 2022. This is supporting 26 projects in communities across Scotland and has, to date, created over 320 opportunities for creative practitioners.

With regard to the Centre for the Moving Image entering into administration, it would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on ongoing legal proceedings, but the Scottish Government is engaging with Creative Scotland, as well as Aberdeen and Edinburgh City Councils, to provide support where possible.

The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring Scotland’s festivals have a global competitive edge. Our Festivals continue to be one of Scotland’s world-leading cultural brands, and we want them to retain their world-class status and continue to offer widespread accessibility to culture for community and education settings. We have and will continue to support our festivals and performers to get back in the international spotlight, backing our major festivals in Glasgow and Edinburgh, to ensure they stay globally competitive.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with the Culture sector to identify barriers to immediate and long-term recovery, and we will continue to do everything within our powers and resources to help those most affected by current economic challenges.

Artists are a significant part of Scotland's culture sector and the Scottish Government is committed to seeing them thrive.

Since April 2021, Creative Scotland has distributed 491 awards to individuals through the Open Fund, totalling £6.2m.

They also distributed 3,923 awards to individuals through the Hardship Fund for Creative Freelancers, to the value of £7.5m in the same period.

Further information on the delivery of SG emergency Covid19 funds by Creative Scotland is available in the Evaluation of Creative Scotland COVID-19 Emergency Funding Programmes | Creative Scotland which covers the 2020-21 emergency funding. A further report on the delivery of SG’s emergency funding by Creative Scotland from late 2021-2022 is currently in preparation.

Creative Scotland is also working on a new approach to funding organisations over multiple years as set out in their Future Funding Review. This aims to offer organisations greater certainty in planning which will improve opportunities for the many freelance artists that are pivotal to their work and who make up over half of the workforce in the arts sector.

The Scottish Government has supported the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI) in the production of Edinburgh International Film Festival through our Festival EXPO fund since the fund’s inception in 2007. The amounts awarded are as follows:

2008-09 - £60,000

2009-10 - £110,000

2010-11 - £180,000

2011-12 - £100,000

2012-13 - £150,000

2013-14 - £110,000

2014-15 - £125,000

2015-16 - £115,000

2016-17 - £110,000

2017-18 - £110,000

2018-19 - £104,000

2019-20 - £100,000

2020-21 - £75,000

2021-22 - £50,000

2022-23 - £110,000

The Scottish Government is continuing to work closely with its core funded cultural organisations, to understand the impacts that the current cost crisis, and wider pressures, are having on the sector. We will be looking at the potential for three-year funding settlements in preparations for the 2023-24 budget.

The Scottish Government delivers support for the Historic Environment through sponsorship of Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and we continue to invest and support the sustainable development of Scotland’s historic estate.

In 2021-2022 we provided HES with £75.9m of Grant in Aid funding which included £20m in Covid emergency funds. In 2022-23, we have provided £68.9m of Grant in Aid funding to support Historic Environment Scotland, maintaining our enhanced support given the impact of the pandemic on HES’s commercial income. This funding is still substantially more than the £42.8m funding provided to HES pre pandemic.

Sustainable development and protection of the historic environment is a vital area of work that HES delivers. More specific detail on the HES’s delivery of this work is available in their Annual Operating Plan 2022-23 | Historic Environment Scotland.

The Scottish Government is continuing to work closely with the culture sector, to understand the impacts that the current cost crisis, and wider pressures, are having on the sector. Due to the dynamic situation we are still assessing multi-year settlements for core funded cultural organisations. For non-core funded cultural organisations Creative Scotland is working on a new approach to funding Regularly Funded Organisations as set out in their Future Funding Review.

Since the announcement in August 2020 to develop a resilient long term solution to the landslide issues at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful, Transport Scotland has spent approximately £5 million in consultancy fees for both the medium term and long term solutions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-11288 on‎ 19 October 2022. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility of which can be found at Written questions and answers | Scottish Parliament Website

The Scottish Government and its operational partners have robust contingency plans in place, such as the Notifiable Avian Disease Control Strategy to prevent and control outbreaks of avian influenza spreading, and have a strong track record of controlling and eliminating outbreaks of the disease.

On 17 October 2022, and in response to an increase in risk to poultry of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) linked with an escalating number of HPAI cases amongst poultry and other captive birds; the return of migratory species to their wintering grounds in the UK; and the ‘over-summering’ of the virus amongst many resident species of wild birds, the Scottish Government, along with Defra, the Welsh Government, and DAERA (Northern Ireland), acted swiftly to declare an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) across the whole of the UK. The AIPZ legally requires keepers to apply strict biosecurity measures in order to limit the spread of and eradicate the disease.

The rigorous scientific risk assessment process upon which the introduction of disease control measures, such as the AIPZ, is based includes analysis of wild bird migratory routes, dead wild bird findings, and outbreaks and strains of virus being identified across Europe, the US, and the rest of the world. The Scottish Government independently reviews these assessments in order to determine the most effective and impactful policy responses for Scotland.

When outbreaks of HPAI have been confirmed, such as that on Isle of Lewis on 12 October 2022, a 3 km Protection Zone and 10 km Surveillance Zone are declared around the infected premises. Within these zones, movement restrictions are applied on poultry, other captive birds, carcases, eggs, and a range of poultry products and associated equipment, all aimed at halting the spread of the disease. An epidemiological investigation is carried out to identify the source of the virus and any potential onward transmission routes.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the other UK administrations and its operational partners to put out communications to keepers ensuring they are aware of the risk of disease, and to promote compliance with the Avian Influenza Prevention Zone biosecurity measures.

Keepers of more than 50 poultry or other captive birds are legally required to register their flock on the GB Poultry Register. Keepers of less than 50 birds can register voluntarily and are routinely encouraged to do so. Registered keepers receive updated SMS messages providing advice and important information on avian influenza from the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) on behalf of the Scottish Government.