Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee 2027-28 pre-budget scrutiny update
On Tuesday 27 October, the Scottish Parliament's Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee held its final evidence session as part of its pre-budget scrutiny for 2027-28, hearing for a second time from Creative Scotland and the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Culture and Gaelic, Màiri McAllan. A summary of the CabSec’s earlier committee appearance is available here.
The Committee has now completed its evidence gathering and will use what it has heard to inform its recommendations to the Scottish Government ahead of the forthcoming Budget.
The session provided further detail on a number of priority areas. The full session can be watched back here, or the official report available here (to be added once available). The documentation for this committee meeting also included a letter from the Cabinet Secretary, and an extremely useful briefing from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
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The Scottish Government has now delivered £70 million of its commitment to increase annual resource funding for culture by £100 million by 2028-29, compared with 2023-24. In written evidence to the Committee, the Cabinet Secretary confirmed that the 2026-27 culture budget stands at £381 million, including £322 million of resource spending. The remainder is capital spending as discussed in the next section.
At the Committee, Scottish Government officials confirmed that the remaining £30 million of the commitment is currently planned to be delivered in full in 2028-29, the final year of the original commitment. This means that no additional spending has yet been confirmed for 2027-28. Whether the forthcoming Budget will deliver any increases in investment in response to the needs and pressures highlighted to the committee remains unclear.
We of course hugely welcome the recent increases in national investment. However, the June 2026 analysis accompanying our Culture Spending Tracker demonstrates that these increases have taken place alongside continuing real-terms reductions in local authority expenditure on culture.
Between 2013 and 2025, Scottish Government spending on culture increased by 26% in real terms, while local authority spending fell by 21.5%. In 2013, councils spent £1.05 on culture for every £1 spent by the Scottish Government. By 2025, that had fallen to 70p, while culture's share of overall public expenditure reduced from 1.12% to 0.75%.
Committee Convener Patrick Harvie challenged the Cabinet Secretary on this issue, highlighting recent sharp reductions in local authority spending on culture and questioning whether increased national investment was being offset by cuts at local level.
The Cabinet Secretary acknowledged the concern, stating that she did not want increased national investment to be undermined by reductions in local spending. However, she emphasised that spending decisions remain the responsibility of individual local authorities and did not offer assurances that the pattern would not continue.
The exchange highlighted an important unresolved question about the extent to which increasing national investment can deliver sustained improvements in cultural provision across Scotland while local authority spending continues to face significant pressure.
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One significant feature of the 2026 Scottish Government's Spending Review is the planned increase in capital expenditure.
Across the wider Constitution, External Affairs and Culture portfolio (as it was named before the 2026 Scottish Parliament election), capital spending is projected to increase from £43 million in 2026-27 to £88.3 million in 2027-28, before falling to £47.4 million in 2028-29.
This is separate from the Government's £100 million commitment, which relates to annual resource funding.
In her written evidence to the Committee, the Cabinet Secretary confirmed £56 million of investment across the Spending Review period in The Artworks, a shared collections storage facility in Granton, Edinburgh. During the Committee session, she also highlighted investment in the Dunard Centre and a conditional commitment towards Glasgow's People's Palace and Winter Gardens.
Creative Scotland also highlighted the need for investment in existing cultural infrastructure, noting that many buildings developed or refurbished with National Lottery funding in the 1990s are now ageing and require further investment. It confirmed that it does not currently operate a general capital funding programme, beyond a small building adaptation pilot fund.
This points to a wider question about how capital investment can support the long-term sustainability of cultural infrastructure across Scotland, alongside the major projects already planned.
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Creative Scotland confirmed that it is developing plans to move towards a rolling Multi-Year Funding programme, rather than requiring organisations to reapply through a major funding round every three years.
Expressions of interest have already opened to existing recipients and organisations seeking to enter the programme. Creative Scotland expects substantial demand and indicated that maintaining the purchasing power of its current £74 million annual programme could require approximately £7 million more by the end of the parliamentary session.
The Committee also discussed Creative Scotland's Open Funds, with Pauline Stafford MSP referencing Culture Counts' written evidence from last month.
Creative Scotland acknowledged the exceptionally high demand for these funds, with success rates for individuals of between 30% and 40% and agreed that additional Scottish Government funding would be positive.
Creative Scotland also highlighted the benefits of increased Multi-Year Funding for individual artists, including a reported 27% increase in opportunities for artists among organisations moving into the programme. This is welcome, but as we highlighted in our evidence, the Open Funds serve a different and complementary purpose. They enable artists to develop their own ideas, experiment, take creative risks and initiate projects, creating opportunities for themselves and other freelancers rather than relying exclusively on work commissioned, programmed or otherwise provided by established organisations.
In 2026-27, Creative Scotland's Open Funds have a budget of £15 million, funded entirely from National Lottery income, as set out in CS's annual plan and the SPICe briefing for the Committee. No allocation has yet been confirmed for 2027-28, including Scottish Government Grant in Aid funding.
In our evidence to the Committee, we recommended that the 2027-28 Budget establish a dedicated, permanent Scottish Government contribution to the Open Funds.
Our analysis found that real-terms value of the open funds has declined by 16.3% since 2015-16, while £74 million of applications went unfunded over the past three years.
Our recommendation for a permanent Scottish Government contribution to the Open Funds also complements the planned Scottish Artists' Minimum Income Pilot. While Multi-Year Funding supports delivery through arts organisations, a minimum income can help create the conditions in which an artist can sustain their practice. The Open Funds serve a different purpose, providing the resources through which that practice can become new artistic works and projects, including paying other artists and freelancers involved. Without adequate project funding, there is a risk that artists would have to use their own income to subsidise the cost of making work. Each form of support serves a distinct purpose, and investment in one should not come at the expense of the others.
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The Cabinet Secretary confirmed that Scottish Government officials are in discussions with the five National Performing Companies about current financial pressures and future funding needs.
Officials are preparing advice for ministers ahead of the 2027-28 Budget and exploring the possibility of longer-term funding arrangements.
The five companies received no additional uplift in 2026-27, following increases of £700,000 and £1 million shared across them in the preceding two years. However, these increases have done little to reverse the longer-term erosion of their funding. During the Committee session, David Green MSP highlighted evidence from the National Theatre of Scotland that its current grant remains around 20% lower in real terms than in 2016-17, despite recent increases. No specific increase for 2027-28 has yet been confirmed.
In our evidence to the Committee, Culture Counts called for the 2027-28 Budget to begin restoring the financial capacity of the National Performing Companies, recognising the scale of their contribution through performance, touring, education and community engagement across Scotland.
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The Committee returned to the recently published Local Culture Scotland report, having heard evidence from its authors and representatives of local government at its previous session on 6 October. The report proposes a new approach to supporting cultural activity in communities, including local culture coordinators and more predictable funding.
The Cabinet Secretary welcomed much of the report's direction, particularly its proposals for local coordinators, more predictable funding and reduced administrative burdens. However, she said further consideration was needed around accountability, differing levels of local capacity and the funding model. No decision on implementation has been announced.
Creative Scotland raised questions about potential duplication with existing programmes and the implications of reallocating Culture Collective funding.
More broadly, the Cabinet Secretary reiterated that future Scottish Government culture budgets would be considered in the context of public sector reform. At a national level, work is underway between cultural public bodies on longer-term sustainability, shared resources and infrastructure. She emphasised that reform should primarily be about improving outcomes rather than reducing expenditure.
However, the implications for culture provision at local government level are potentially much more significant. The wider public sector reform agenda includes substantial savings and workforce reduction targets, alongside proposals for changes to the structure and operation of local government. Councils are already under considerable financial pressure, and most of their cultural provision has limited statutory protection in practice, meaning culture is particularly exposed as services are reorganised and savings sought.
In written evidence to the Parliament's Public Service Reform Committee, Culture Counts argued that further reductions in cultural spending or staffing would undermine existing provision and the sector's capacity to contribute to the preventative outcomes that reform seeks to achieve. Culture accounts for a very small proportion of public expenditure, meaning further savings would make little difference to the wider fiscal challenge while potentially having substantial consequences for cultural services and the communities they support. While the Cabinet Secretary was clear that she did not want increases in national investment to be offset by reductions in local spending, it is difficult to see how further cuts to local cultural services can be avoided given the financial pressures facing councils, the limited statutory protection afforded to culture, and the additional savings being sought through public sector reform.
There is also a wider opportunity here. As we argued in the evidence to the Public Service Reform Committee, the current policy and legislative framework provides limited protection for local cultural services and no clear basis for planning, investing in or measuring cultural outcomes. If the Scottish Government is considering significant reforms to the way local government operates, there is an opportunity to address these weaknesses and reconsider how culture is supported, funded and delivered across national and local government.
These questions extend beyond public service reform alone and relate directly to the commitment to consult to develop a Culture and Arts Bill. Together, these processes present an opportunity to establish a more coherent and sustainable approach to cultural policy, with stronger coordination between national and local government and clearer responsibilities for supporting cultural provision across Scotland.
What happens next?
The Committee will now develop its recommendations to the Scottish Government ahead of the 2027-28 Budget.
The Scottish budget is scheduled for 3 December 2026 and will provide a clearer picture of the Government’s spending plans across 27-28, including whether additional support will reach the Open Funds, National Performing Companies and other areas experiencing sustained financial pressure.
The Committee also briefly discussed the commitment to consult to develop a Culture and Arts Bill, including whether it might address the statutory position of cultural services. The Cabinet Secretary emphasised the practical challenges of introducing new statutory duties without the resources needed to deliver them.
For Culture Counts, the priority remains ensuring that recent increases in national investment translate into lasting improvements across Scotland's cultural sector, alongside a more stable, coordinated and effective approach to cultural policy and investment.