Chamber and committees

A number of times, you have cited inflation as being the reason behind the decision to cut the £6.6 million. There are huge cost of living and inflationary pressures that affect the Government and many people in the culture sector, too. When the promise was made to provide that essential funding of £6.6 million, inflation was running at 10.4 per cent. Over the past few months, it has fallen to 6.7 per cent. I want to be clear that that remains far too high. If inflationary pressures were the reason for reneging on the promise, why was it made in the first place, when inflation was at 10.4 per cent? When did it become clear that you would not be able to keep the promise? Was it a promise that, deep down, you knew that you could not keep?

People accepted your assurance in February, but that turned out to not be worth anything—literally. Is the commitment for next year a gold-plated commitment?

A commitment was given in February, and you have talked about the pressures that the cabinet secretary discussed with you yesterday. You mentioned pay. Is it your understanding that this budget is potentially being used for pay settlements elsewhere in the public sector?

No—I am fine, thank you.

It is a difficult situation. People are looking for certainty over multiple years, but they do not even have certainty over the next seven months.

Good morning to the witnesses. We have had a U-turn in February, then we had a U-turn on the U-turn, so it is no wonder that there has been an erosion of trust within the sector. You mentioned that the cabinet secretary was at the meeting yesterday, Mr Munro. Did the cabinet secretary explain the situation?

The promise was made in February. You got confirmation in writing on 27 September—yesterday—of the cut being reinstated. Have you had any indication of when Government made that decision, or of how long it has been considering reinstating the cut? It is clear that the cabinet secretary did not wake up yesterday morning and say, “I’m going to cut £6.6 million from Creative Scotland’s budget.”

I was actually going to ask the question that Donald Cameron asked, but I have another question as well. The testimony about the impact on international work is important for us to hear.

With regard to the domestic aspect, at last week’s meeting, I asked about the impact that funding pressures and the trajectory of funding would have on opportunities for children and young people in Scotland. Do you have any reflections or thoughts on that? I am thinking of education and learning opportunities, and also employment opportunities.

I know that the organisations that are represented here today do a lot of work to support opportunities for children and young people, but notwithstanding that, I would like to hear what you think the challenges are in that regard and how funding pressures could adversely affect those opportunities.

Will using reserves this year make it more difficult to move to multiyear funding without having that cushion that you otherwise would have had?

Thanks for the evidence so far. It is definitely a bleak picture that has been painted about the impact of budget pressures on the sector. Mr Sinclair earlier pointed to the evidence of Culture Counts that was submitted around the specific figure of a required 30 per cent increase in the portfolio budget. Obviously, we have heard about the impact that the current budget cuts have had. Do members of the panel support the figure that Culture Counts gave? If not, is there a specific figure that you are looking for in the budget?