Published: 28 Sep 2023
Creative Scotland recently made a submission to the Scottish Parliament Culture Committee’s ongoing inquiry into culture budgets in Scotland - read the submission on the Scottish Parliament website
In that submission, we stated the following regarding our Grant in Aid budget from the Scottish Government for 2023/24:
“While we welcomed the Scottish Government’s decision in February 2023 to reverse the 10% cut to our Grant in Aid Budget which was originally announced in December 2022, it should be noted that the £6.6m this cut related to has not yet been confirmed in Creative Scotland's budget.”
We are extremely disappointed to report that the £6.6m budget has not been included in the Autumn Budget Revisions.
This has been confirmed in writing by the Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Angus Robertson, in a letter to our Chief Executive, Iain Munro on 20 September.
This relates to Grant-in Aid funding that we receive from the Scottish Government and that we use to support 119 cultural organisations across Scotland through Regular Funding.
Given the extensive messaging and advocacy regarding the pressures on culture budgets and risks to the culture sector that we, and many others have been making, this is a concerning development.
To address this reduction, the Creative Scotland Board agreed on 27 September, to use £6.6m of our National Lottery reserves to prevent us having to pass it on to the Regularly Funded Organisations, especially given the next payments are due in 2 weeks’ time.
Whilst the unprecedented pressures on public finances are understood, we are disappointed that the Scottish Government has taken this decision. However, Creative Scotland is acting swiftly and pragmatically to help stabilise the situation in the short term.
This step of using our National Lottery reserves in this way will only happen once. The budget for 2024/25 will not be decided by the Scottish Government for some months yet but should the Scottish Government choose to sustain this reduction, we will require to pass it on to the sector.
Creative Scotland appear before the Culture Committee at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday 28 September, at 08.45, to give evidence as part of the Committee’s ongoing inquiry into culture budgets in Scotland.
Creative Scotland’s CEO Iain Munro gave evidence to the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee on Budget Scrutiny 2024-25 - Funding for Culture on Thursday 28 September, at 08.45.
Creative Scotland’s written submission is available on our website along with our addendum to that submission.
More information on the session can be found on the Scottish Parliament website: Agenda for CEEAC Meeting | Thursday 28 September 2023 and is available to watch on Scottish Parliament TV
