– in the Scottish Parliament at on 15 November 2023.
Rachael Hamilton
Conservative
5. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what plans it has to restore a reported £6.6 million reduction in funding to Creative Scotland for 2024-25. (S6O-02716)
Angus Robertson
Scottish National Party
The Scottish Government values the importance of the arts, especially their significant contribution to wellbeing and to the cultural, social and economic life in communities across Scotland.
It is for those reasons, among many, that during the past five years the Scottish Government has provided more than £33 million to Creative Scotland to compensate for a shortfall in National Lottery funding. As a result of rising costs and pressure on budgets across Government, the Scottish Government is unable to make up the £6.6 million shortfall in National Lottery funding during this financial year.
Subject to the usual parliamentary processes, we will provide that shortfall funding of £6.6 million to Creative Scotland in 2024-25. We hope to provide a further update on funding following publication of the draft budget in December.
Rachael Hamilton
Conservative
I thank the Cabinet secretary for his answer. We all want extra funding for culture, because it will allow great events—such as the Borders book festival, which takes place in my Constituency—to continue to thrive in the future.
However, the delivery of the funding has been a fiasco. First, the Scottish National Party cut the Creative Scotland budget, then it announced—with a great fanfare—that it would reverse that cut, then it restored the cut, then it restored the funding again. The SNP U-turned on a U-turn on a U-turn. Does the cabinet secretary accept that the culture sector needs more certainty than that confusing hokey cokey?
Angus Robertson
Scottish National Party
It is important to appreciate the context of the end-year finance. Unfortunately, Rachael Findlay is not on the culture committee, where she would have heard—
[
Interruption.
]
Sorry, I meant to say Rachael Hamilton—forgive me. I do not know whether that would be a promotion or a demotion. I will leave others to decide.
It is important to understand that we had pressures because of the UCI cycling world championships—the cost of which amounted to £8 million—£6.6 million for Creative Scotland, and a very significant list of cultural projects right across Scotland that were under threat unless we were able to manage the end-year finances differently. We have done that. The Government took the UCI cycling world championship costs out of the portfolio, and it has ensured that Creative Scotland uses its reserves so that there is no detriment to regularly funded organisations.
If I have an opportunity later during questions, I will be able to confirm the spending that we have been able to put forward—
The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Cabinet secretary, you are over your time. We need to move on.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
