Scottish government reinstates Creative Scotland budget cut

Creative Scotland, the public body that supports the arts across Scotland, will be the subject of a 10% funding cut, as a result of a U-turn by the Scottish government. The decision sees the government go back on its decision in February to cancel the cut, originally proposed in December 2022.

The cabinet secretary for culture Angus Robertson confirmed, in a letter to Creative Scotland chief executive Iain Munro, that the £6.6m budget has not been included in the Scottish government’s Autumn Budget Revisions. With Regularly Funded Organisations payments due in 2 weeks’ time, Creative Scotland has confirmed it will use £6.6m of its National Lottery reserves to prevent the cut being passed on to the organisations it funds.

In an addendum by Creative Scotland to its submission to the Constitution of Europe External Affairs and Culture Committee (CEEACC) inquiry into culture budgets published yesterday, the organisation said: ‘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 any cuts, we will require to pass them on to the sector.’

The reinstatement of this cut has again prompted outrage on social media. Munro appeared alongside Isabel Davis, executive director of Creative Scotland partner organisation Screen Scotland, before before the Culture Committee at the Scottish Parliament earlier today to give evidence as part of the Committee’s ongoing inquiry into culture budgets in Scotland.