Scottish government criticised over ‘betrayal of culture sector’

The Scottish government has proceeded with plans to cut funding for Creative Scotland by £6.6m, despite previously abandoning the proposals.

A draft budget, published in December, had proposed to cut Creative Scotland’s grant-in-aid budget, which goes towards funding arts and culture organisations across Scotland, from £63m to £56m – a reduction of more than 10%.

In February, Deputy First Minister John Swinney, the acting Finance Minister, announced an amendment to the government’s budget plans for 2023/24 in the Scottish Parliament which effectively reversed the cut.

But yesterday Creative Scotland revealed the Scottish government's intention to reimpose a £6.6m cut to their in-year funding for the current financial year (2023/24).

READ MORE:

• Scottish Government U-turns on funding cut to Creative Scotland
• Creative Scotland warns of ‘extremely challenging’ funding climate

Appearing before the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee this morning (28 September), Creative Scotland’s Chief Executive Iain Munro said the £6.6m has already been allocated to regularly funded organisations (RFOs).

He said this amount will now be funded from Creative Scotland’s National Lottery reserves, adding that if the reduced funding levels are maintained into 2024/5, around half of the current RFOs and 2,000 jobs would be at risk.

Campaign for the Arts, which lobbied against the original decision to cut £6.6m from Creative Scotland's budget, said it is relaunching a campaign to protect arts funding in Scotland.

Jack Gamble, Director of Campaign for the Arts, said: “This 'u-turn on a u-turn' is an extraordinary betrayal of Scotland's cultural sector, all those who campaigned to support it, and the Scottish government's own commitments to protect it. 

"Scotland’s artists and arts organisations need backing, not broken promises.”  A new petition has been launched today (28 September) calling on the Scottish government to keep its promise.

Trevor MacFarlane, Director of Culture Commons, a policy design and advocacy organisation working with the creative and cultural sectors across the UK, said: "Scotland's creative and cultural sectors are agile and responsive, even in the most challenging of financial periods. 

"But there are only so many about-turns on about-turns that these sectors can take from Scottish government before trust is lost completely."