4. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it plans to further invest in the culture sector. (S6O-02929)

As I have already confirmed to the chamber, next financial year we will increase funding to the culture sector by £15.8 million to £196.6 million. That is the first step on the route to investing at least £100 million more annually in culture and the arts by the financial year 2028-29.

The commitment has already been given by the Deputy First Minister in the recent budget that, in 2025-26, we aim to provide an additional £25 million to the culture sector. That commitment to additional funding is despite the challenging budget situation, and signals our confidence to the Scottish culture sector, including in Clydebank and Milngavie.

I welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to increased spending on culture.

I have met numerous arts and culture groups in my constituency. Those groups are so important because they not only create safe spaces in which creatives can thrive, but allow for development of meaningful connections that can reduce the social isolation that people face in our constituencies.

What approach is the Scottish Government taking to ensure that additional investment will be shared fairly across all communities?

I pay tribute to Marie McNair, who has been a doughty campaigner for the culture and arts community in Clydebank and Milngavie.

It is incredibly important that the benefits of funding for the culture and arts sector be felt throughout the whole country. An example of that is the Culture Collective programme, which is a Scotland-wide programme that we fund to develop in our communities grass-roots participatory arts experiences, including projects to reduce social isolation.

We want, through increased investment in culture over the next five years, to drive up opportunities for participation in creative pursuits—which, of course, includes those in Clydebank and Milngavie.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

I have received requests for three supplementaries, and I intend to take all three.

Despite what the Scottish National Party Government would have us believe—that the £6.6 million in the recent Scottish budget is increased funding—it is actually reinstatement of the 10 per cent cut to Creative Scotland that was revealed a year ago, dropped in the spring, then reinstated in September. That is now being disguised as an increase in investment.

Following the announcement of £25 million for 2025-26, can the cabinet secretary say how much of that funding is genuinely additional and will actually be delivered?

We are committed to delivering all the funding. I am not sure that that was a welcome for the increase—I did not hear that. I know, from the role that he plays in committee, that Alexander Stewart is a strong supporter of culture and the arts. We all need to row behind the culture and the arts sector.

We want to provide the necessary funding. It is important that Creative Scotland has the funding that it requires; it will have it. I look forward to positive discussions, which I have offered to members and parties across the chamber. I will welcome any good ideas about how we can ensure that the culture and arts sector can thrive with the support of additional Scottish Government funding, and I will welcome the member’s participation in that process.

I was pleased to hear the cabinet secretary’s response to Marie McNair about every community benefiting from culture spend, because the analysis of EventScotland and Creative Scotland shows huge variations across the country. In Perth and Kinross, the spend is three times higher than spend in Fife, and in Stirling, it is four times higher. In Dundee, the spend is six times higher, in Glasgow it is 11 times higher, and in Edinburgh it is 14 times higher than the spend in Fife. What is the minister doing to make sure that every community benefits from that spend?

I commend Willie Rennie, because he has asked that question a number of times and wants to ensure that there is the maximum possible spend for the culture and the arts sector in North East Fife, and that the rest of Fife can be secure. I have said to him previously that it is important that we have separation between our arm’s-length cultural organisation—Creative Scotland, which makes the decisions—and ministers. It is not for ministers to direct specific regional projects.

If Willie Rennie is aware of culture projects that are not being appropriately funded, will he please make me and Creative Scotland aware of them. I and my colleagues want to ensure that our culture and arts sector across Scotland is properly funded.

I welcome Willie Rennie’s input and extend to him and his party colleagues an offer to input any suggestions that they might have about the increase in spending that we will undertake in the years ahead. I welcome his input on where relative priorities should be.

Despite £2 billion having been spent on ticket sales across the UK, every week last year at least one grass-roots music venue permanently closed its doors. Other countries have shown that there is a way out of that decline through ticket levies supporting the development of grass-roots music and venues. Does the cabinet secretary agree that 2024 is the year in which to turn the situation around, including by accelerating progress towards establishing a ticket levy on arena and stadium tickets to support the grass roots?

That suggestion has been made and is being repeated, and it is being promoted very actively by some members of the cultural community. That community has suggested that the suggestion needs to be explored further, and I am open to learning about it. As I have said to the committee that Mark Ruskell serves on, we need to look imaginatively at all kinds of ways in which we could secure the necessary funding for the culture and arts sector. The suggestion, which Mark Ruskell has made a number of times, is one that merits further consideration. I look forward to the committee looking at it closely and to receiving more advice on it. No doubt we will look at it together with other suggestions, to ensure that the culture and arts sector receives the funding that it requires. I know that Mark Ruskell supports that. I certainly do.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

Question 5 was not lodged.