Chamber and committees

Those are good points. The culture in communities report was mentioned by a number of contributors. One of the committee’s recommendations in that report is about cultural representation at the community planning partnership level. The Government is yet to respond to that report, but that should happen soon.

I echo Ms Forbes's comments about the success of the screen industry, which is something that we are all proud of. I am conscious, too, that a lot of the feedback that we have had from cultural organisations, such as those involved in the Edinburgh festivals, the fringe and so on, is that they have been successful—post-Covid recovery is kicking in, numbers are returning and the sector is flourishing. It is good to see performance across all areas in that respect.

I return to the immediate challenges. You have been able to mitigate the funding situation for regularly funded organisations this year. Have you had any indication from the Government of whether the cut will recur next year? Has there been any discussion around those areas? If that cut continues, will it fall mainly on the regularly funded organisations or will you have to re-evaluate your whole programme and ambition for multiyear funding, for instance?

Do you have any final thoughts, Mr Munro?

I will bring in Neil Bibby.

Donald Cameron, do you want to come back in?

As we are back on funding, I will come back to Lori Anderson, given her earlier wish to comment on it.

Mr Bibby, did you want to come back in?

I am conscious of the time, and there are two more members to come in. David Watt, do you have thoughts on that question?

I am conscious that we have run right up against our time. If there are no more questions, I thank everyone for coming along for the evidence session and for your written submissions, which have been helpful to the committee for today’s session.

Good morning, and a very warm welcome to the 26th meeting in 2023 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee.

Our first agenda item is pre-budget scrutiny of the 2024-25 Scottish Government budget. We have two panels of witnesses for this evidence session. First, we are joined by Iain Munro, the chief executive of Creative Scotland, and Isabel Davis, the executive director of screen for Creative Scotland. A warm welcome to you both.

I will begin. We had a supplementary submission from Creative Scotland yesterday, which outlined the proposed £6.6 million reduction in the grant aid for 2023-24. Our understanding was that that reduction had been reversed, but that cut has now been reinstated. Mr Munro, can you outline what impact that will have on Creative Scotland?