Chamber and committees

I am looking to see whether anyone wants to come in on that question.

That was helpful—thank you. We have exhausted questions, so I suspend the meeting briefly while we change over to our next panel.

A warm welcome back to our second evidence session.

We are joined by Lori Anderson, director, Culture Counts; Julia Amour, director, Festivals Edinburgh; David Watt, chief executive, Culture & Business Scotland; Chris Breward, director, National Museums Scotland; Brenna Hobson, executive director, National Theatre of Scotland; and Francesca Hegyi, chief executive, Edinburgh International Festival. A warm welcome to you all.

Last year, our budget scrutiny coined the term “perfect storm” to describe what was facing the cultural sector. I first ask each of the witnesses to reflect on where they are now. I think that most of you saw the previous evidence session with Creative Scotland.

I will go round the room from left to right.

We will probably come back to that. We will have the introductory comments first, and then we will come back to you later.

We have not come to Lori Anderson yet. Lori, do you want to come in on this subject?

As well as the question around funding, yes.

I have Ms Forbes, Mr Stewart, Mr Ruskell and then Mr Brown. I am sorry—everybody wants in. I will call Kate Forbes first.

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?