10 Recommendations on Funding For Culture 2025-26 - Pre-Budget Scrutiny

Culture Counts have submitted evidence to the Scottish Parliament Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee’s scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s culture budget for 2025-26.

That evidence can be found in full here, and background on the issues involved here.

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Recommendations

1.    For the Scottish Government to prioritise securing the future of Scotland’s culture sector though targeting funding to support core activity, infrastructure and capacity building.

2.    For the Scottish Government to deliver on their 2021 Programme for Government commitment to “invest in much-needed stability for the cultural organisations that we provide regular funding for, by agreeing 3-year funding settlements, to allow them to plan for a sustainable recovery”. 

3.    For the Scottish Government to bring forward as much of the promised £100 million increased investment in culture now when it is most needed to secure the sector’s future.

4.    For the Scottish Government to confirm the funding commitment to the national institutions and public sector cultural bodies including Creative Scotland for this financial year’s budget (2024-25)  including the reinstated £6.6 million and support for the Culture Collective and PLACE initiatives.

5.    For the Scottish Government to set a target of at least 1% of budget allocated to culture, which would demonstrate its value is understood and provide the support at a level that will move towards European comparators and enable it to flourish and play a central role in people’s lives across Scotland. Setting this as a baseline of investment should then have as a minimum index linked annual increases.

6.    For the Scottish Government to progress the commitment to mainstreaming culture across portfolios and develop cross-portfolio funding for culture.

7.    For the Scottish Government to move forward and test out the proposed 2021 Programme for Government commitment to “begin work on establishing a ‘Percentage for the Arts’ scheme”.

8.    For the Scottish Government to reinstate the role of Culture Minister, given the size of the portfolio, and to support the sector though these times of crisis.

9.    For the Scottish Government to provide clarity on where leadership in the creative economy currently lies and explore the potential of a strategy for the Creative Industries in Scotland.

10.  For the Scottish Government to work to maintain the cultural tax reliefs as permanent commitments and collaborate further with the new UK Government to open up future investment opportunities and partnerships.